Merce Cunningham facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham in 1961
Born	Mercier Philip Cunningham (1919-04-16)April 16, 1919 Centralia, Washington, U.S.
Died	July 26, 2009(2009-07-26) (aged 90) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Dancer choreographer
Years active	1938–2009
Partner(s)	John Cage

Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham (born April 16, 1919 – died July 26, 2009) was an amazing American dancer and choreographer. He was a leader in modern dance for over 50 years. He often worked with artists from other fields. These included musicians like John Cage and Brian Eno. He also worked with graphic artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Even fashion designers like Rei Kawakubo collaborated with him. Their combined works had a huge impact on new and experimental art, not just in dance.

Merce Cunningham greatly influenced modern dance as a choreographer, teacher, and leader of his own company. Many dancers who learned from him later started their own dance groups. Some famous names include Paul Taylor and Deborah Hay.

In 2009, the Cunningham Dance Foundation announced a special plan. It was called the Legacy Plan. This plan aimed to continue Cunningham's work and keep his artistic ideas alive.

Cunningham received many top awards in the arts. These included the National Medal of Arts and the MacArthur Fellowship. He also won Japan's Praemium Imperiale and a British Laurence Olivier Award. France even made him an Officier of the Légion d'honneur.

Many books, films, and exhibitions have been made about Cunningham's life and art. His dances have been performed by famous groups. These include the Paris Opéra Ballet and the New York City Ballet.

Merce Cunningham's Life Story

Merce Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington, in 1919. He was the second of three sons. His brothers became lawyers, like their father. Merce first discovered dance in Centralia. He took tap dance classes from a local teacher, Mrs. Maude Barrett. She taught him to love dance with her energy. She also taught him about precise timing and rhythm. This helped him greatly in his later dance creations.

From 1937 to 1939, he studied acting at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. But he found acting too strict because it relied on words. Cunningham preferred dance because it allowed him to explore movement freely. While he was there, famous dancer Martha Graham saw him dance. She invited him to join her company.

In 1939, Cunningham moved to New York City. He danced as a soloist for the Martha Graham Dance Company for six years. In April 1944, he performed his first solo show in New York. He worked with composer John Cage, who became his lifelong partner and frequent collaborator. Cage and Cunningham worked together until Cage's death in 1992.

In the summer of 1953, Cunningham started the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. This happened while he was teaching at Black Mountain College.

Throughout his career, Cunningham created over 200 dances. He also made more than 800 "Events." These were special dance performances designed for specific locations. In 1963, he and Cage created the first performance for the Walker Art Center. This started a 25-year partnership with the center. In his shows, he often used the I Ching to decide the order of his dances. Sometimes, dancers didn't know the sequence until the show began! Cunningham also performed as a dancer in his company until the early 1990s.

In 1968, Cunningham published his book Changes: Notes on Choreography. It included many sketches of his dance ideas.

Cunningham continued to live in New York City. He led his dance company as Artistic Director until he passed away. He presented his last new work, Nearly Ninety, in April 2009. This show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music celebrated his 90th birthday. He died later that year at age 90.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Cunningham started the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) in 1953. It began at Black Mountain College. The company had a unique style. It followed Cunningham's new ideas about space, time, and technology. This showed the endless possibilities of human movement.

The first dancers in the company included Carolyn Brown and Paul Taylor. Musicians John Cage and David Tudor were also part of the original group. In 1964, the Cunningham Dance Foundation was created to support his work.

MCDC went on its first international tour in 1964. They visited Europe and Asia.

From 1971 until it closed in 2012, the company was based in the Westbeth Artists Community in New York City. Merce Cunningham himself lived nearby with John Cage for a time.

On July 20, 1999, Merce Cunningham and Mikhail Baryshnikov performed together. This was at the New York State Theater for Cunningham's 80th birthday.

In its later years, the company had a two-year stay at Dia:Beacon. There, MCDC performed "Events" in art galleries. These were special dance collages. In 2007, MCDC premiered XOVER. This was Cunningham's last work with artist Robert Rauschenberg. The company's final tour ended on December 31, 2011. Their last performance was at the Park Avenue Armory.

Merce Cunningham's Artistic Ideas

Working with Others

Still frame from Loops, a digital art collaboration with Cunningham and The OpenEnded Group that interprets Cunningham's motion-captured dance for the hands.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company often worked with visual artists, architects, designers, and musicians.

Many of Cunningham's best ideas came from working with composer John Cage. They used "chance procedures" to create their art. This meant they often let chance decide parts of their work. They didn't follow traditional rules for stories or forms. They famously believed that dance and its music should not be planned together.

After John Cage passed away, David Tudor became the music director. Later, Takehisa Kosugi took over in 1995. MCDC asked more modern composers to create music for them than any other dance company. Their shows included music from artists like Gavin Bryars and popular bands. These bands included Radiohead, Sigur Rós, and Sonic Youth.

The company also worked with many visual artists and designers. Robert Rauschenberg was the company's main designer from 1954 to 1964. Other artists who worked with MCDC include Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Rei Kawakubo.

Using Chance in Dance

Cunningham cared a lot about how a dance was made, not just the final show. He used "chance procedures" in his choreography. This means the order of steps or sequences was not known until the actual performance. It was decided by chance. For example, in his work Suite by Chance, he tossed a coin. The coin toss decided how to put the choreographed parts together.

Another idea was "indeterminacy." Many of his pieces had sections that could be performed in any order. They could also be done at any time. Some people thought using chance meant avoiding artistic responsibility. But Cunningham loved how this process led to dances that couldn't be created in a traditional way. He didn't keep every dance made this way. If a dance didn't "work," it was quickly removed. The successful ones were celebrated as happy accidents.

Cunningham used "non-representational" choreography. This simply means the dance focuses on movement itself. It doesn't tell a story or show an emotion. This type of dance has existed throughout history. But it wasn't common in ballet or in the work of Martha Graham, who influenced Cunningham. By using chance, Cunningham moved away from traditional dance structures. He didn't believe a dance needed a clear beginning, middle, or end.

Examples of Chance in Works

In Sixteen Dances for Soloist and Company of Three (1951), Cunningham first used indeterminacy. The order of the sections changed for each show.

In Field Dances (1963), Cunningham gave dancers more freedom. Each dancer got a sequence of movements. They could do them as they wished. This included entering and exiting the stage freely. They could also perform the movements in any order and as many times as they wanted.

In Story (1963), Cunningham experimented with costumes and sets. Before each show, dancers picked an outfit from a pile of used clothes. These were chosen by the designer, Robert Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg also created a new set for every show. He used items he found in the theater.

Suite by Chance (1953) was his first work made entirely by chance. Charts listed elements like space, time, and positions. A coin toss then decided each of these elements.

Canfield (1969) was created using playing cards. Each movement was linked to a playing card. The cards were then chosen randomly.

Using Technology

Cunningham loved to explore and innovate. This made him a leader in using new technologies for art. He started looking into dance on film in the 1970s. After 1991, he used a computer program called LifeForms for choreography. This software was made by Zella Wolofsky, Tom Calvert, and Thecla Schiphorst.

Cunningham also explored motion capture technology. He worked with digital artists Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar. They created Hand-drawn Spaces. This was a three-screen animation. It premiered at SIGGRAPH in 1998. This led to a live stage dance called BIPED. For this, Kaiser and Eshkar created the projected backgrounds. In 2008, Cunningham shared his Loops choreography for hands. He released it as motion-capture data for others to use. This became the basis for a project with The OpenEnded Group.

Cunningham was one of the first choreographers to use film. He created a special work for the video Westbeth (1974). He worked with filmmaker Charles Atlas on this. The computer program he used later became DanceForms. It uses digital dancers with color-coded limbs for choreography.

In 2009, Cunningham's interest in new media led to Mondays with Merce. This was a webcast that showed behind-the-scenes looks at his work.

Different Ways to See Dance

The way stage space was used also changed in Cunningham's dances. The "front and center" spot, usually for solo dancers, didn't exist in his works. Dance could happen anywhere on the stage. It didn't even have to face the audience directly. Sometimes, audiences sat in an L-shape around the stage. This meant they could see the dance from different angles. The audience's attention was never directed to just one spot. They often had to choose among many things happening at once.

Merce Cunningham saw randomness as a good thing. He believed it was like real life. Most of Cunningham's choreography aimed to break the rules of a "show." Removing the center stage is an example. Without a main focus, no one dancer or step was more important. This could be seen as random, or not.

Merce Cunningham's Legacy Plan

The Cunningham Dance Foundation announced the Legacy Plan (LLP) in June 2009. This plan was a guide for the future of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Cunningham himself imagined it. It was the first plan of its kind in the dance world. It showed Cunningham's vision for his work to continue after he could no longer lead. It also aimed to keep his dances alive.

The Legacy Plan included a detailed digital program. This program documented and preserved his dances. It makes sure that future generations can study, perform, and enjoy his pieces. They can learn how the dances were originally created. The Merce Cunningham Trust now manages his dances for licensing. Cunningham's helpers made detailed records of the dances. This allows other companies to perform them authentically. The plan also included a final international tour for the company. After the tour, the Cunningham Dance Foundation and Merce Cunningham Dance Company closed. All their assets were transferred to the Merce Cunningham Trust. From Merce's death in 2009 until the board's last meeting in 2012, the Legacy Plan was put into action. The final performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company was on December 31, 2011. It took place at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City.

The final meeting for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's board was on March 15, 2012. It was held in Cunningham's studio in the Westbeth building.

Exhibitions About Merce Cunningham

Many exhibitions have been dedicated to Cunningham's work. His visual art is shown by the Margarete Roeder Gallery.

A big exhibition called Invention: Merce Cunningham & Collaborators was at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. It closed on October 13, 2007.

Merce Cunningham: Dancing on the Cutting Edge showed recent designs for MCDC. It opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, in January 2007.

In spring 2002, three exhibitions focused on John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Merce Cunningham. They were shown at the Gallery of Fine Art, Edison College, Florida.

A major exhibition about Cunningham and his collaborations was first shown in Barcelona in 1999. It then traveled to Portugal, Vienna, and Turin in 1999 and 2000.

Selected Works by Merce Cunningham

Cunningham choreographed almost 200 works for his company.

Honors and Awards

See also

In Spanish: Merce Cunningham para niños

• List of dancers