Merce Cunningham Essays - Guggenheim Fellows,

Merce Cunningham Merce Cunningham: Pioneer of Modern Dance In the age of conformity, Merce Cunningham has resisted the temptation to remain aligned with his peers. Cunningham has pioneered a new school of thought in dance, and has set the standard for future pioneers. He is passionate about what he does and it has been evident in his works as a dancer and a choreographer. Cunningham was born on April 16, 1919, in Centralia, Washington. At the age of twelve, Cunningham became interested in dance and started informal instruction. Upon graduation from high school, Cunningham began his formal dance instruction at the Cornish School of Fine and Applied Arts. After two years at the Cornish School, he studied at Mills College and at Bennington College; this is where he was invited to join Martha Grahams dance company in 1939. Graham was an incredible dancer who also choreographed during her career. While dancing for Graham, Cunningham began to make a name for himself in the dancing community. It was with Grahams encouragement that Cunningham started to choreograph on his own. His decision to start choreographing can be looked at as one of the most important decisions in the history of dance. With the encouragement of John Cage, a composer, Cunningham left Martha Grahams Dance Company in 1945 to pursue a fulltime partnership with Cage. The two men would go on to have a very storied career. On the night of April 6, 1944, at the Humphrey Weidman Studio, Cunningham and Cage performed their first solo recital. In attendance that night was acclaimed dance critic, Edwin Denby. When he was actively reviewing, Edwin Denby was this countrys most respected critic of the dance(Klosty 215). Cunninghams first performance captured Denby from the very beginning with Cunninghams amazing steps, runs, and knee bends and he described them as brilliant in lightness and speed. Denby was also impressed by Cunninghams gifts as a lyric dancer. Denbys first review of Cunningham helped launch his career forward. Denby ended his review of Cunninghams first solo performance by saying I have never seen a first solo recital that combined such taste, such technical finish, such originality of dance mat erial, and so sure a manner of presentation. Before the 1940s, expressionist was the leading form of modern dance. Cunningham on the other hand, was opposed to this type of dance and started to develop his own unique form of dance. While Graham had usually structured her dances around a certain narrative, Cunningham developed choreography by chance, a technique in which isolated movements are assigned sequence by such random methods as tossing a coin(Britannica Online). Cunningham rejected the literary and psychological themes of Graham(Encarta). In 1953, Cunningham began the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Black Mountain College. Cage became instrumental in the success and future of Cunninghams newly started Dance Company. Cage would help out in all facets of the dance company ranging from program designer to fund raiser. Cunningham and Cage shared the same belief that dance and music can survive independently of one another. This type of thought was completely different from what Cunningham had experienced with Graham. Howe ver, in some sense all of their dancing somehow revolved around music in one way or the other. The music Cunningham used in his productions would sometimes be impossible to dance to in the conventional way. John Cage was once quoted as saying: Merce Cunningham developed his own school of dancing and choreography, the continuity of which no longer relies on linear elements, be they narrative or psychological, nor does it rely on a movement towards and away from climax. As in abstract painting, it is assumed that an element (a movement, a sound, a change of light) is in and of itself expressive; what it communicates is in large part determined by the observer himself. (Merce Biography) This new style of dance demanded the most out of the dancers in Cunninghams company. Everything they knew about traditional dancing had to be forgotten in order to be successful in Cunninghams innovative style. Traditional stage space was even something that Cunningham had abandoned. Since the Renaissance Period, the center of the stage had always been the center of gravity(Klosty 12). Klosty compared the stage to a class society where the center of