Merce Cunningham, RIP

Merce Cunningham, avant-garde choreographer and pioneer of modern dance died yesterday at age 90. While his own career focused on dance, Cunningham influenced and collaborated with artists as diverse as John Cage, David Tudor, Robert Rauschenberg, and Bruce Nauman. For Here is Cunningham on the use of chance operations to create artistic works:

John Cage and I became interested in the use of chance in the 50's. I think one of the very primary things that happened then was the publication of the "I Ching," the Chinese book of changes, from which you can cast your fortune: the hexagrams. Cage took it to work in his way of making compositions then; and he used the idea of 64—the number of the hexagrams —to say that you had 64, for example, sounds; then you could cast, by chance, to find which sound first appeared, cast again, to say which sound came second, cast again, so that it's done by, in that sense, chance operations. Instead of finding out what you think should follow—say a particular sound—what did the I Ching suggest? Well, I took this also for dance.

Merce Cunningham (New York Times)
Merce Cunningham Dance Company

[#1 posted by Anonymous, July 27, 2009 9:48 PM]

Radiohead mentioned sadness at his passing with an interesting story about working with him in 1993:

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/index.php?a=494

[#2 posted by Anonymous, July 27, 2009 10:00 PM]

I am anonymous #1

Correction: It should read 2003 instead of 1993.

[#3 posted by paxed, July 27, 2009 10:50 PM]

John Cage and Merce Cunningham were life partners for more than 50 years.

[#4 posted by Anonymous, July 27, 2009 11:35 PM]

Was introduced to the works of Cunningham and Cage through a dance history class about a year ago. Lot's of really interesting stuff in their work and how it was made. Now I'm sad

[#5 posted by Keeper of the Lantern, July 28, 2009 5:09 AM]

Wow, Fine Watches. That was an insightful comment: In a post dedicated to Merce Cunningham I'd DEFINITELY click a post for watch knock-offs...

Meanwhile, you could arguably blame a lot of the modern art (including Punk) on Merce Cunningham. In NYC the modern dance folks (a la Judson Dance) inspired folks like the minimalists to break down and re-examine their own artforms.

I recently read where Iggy Pop stated that a lot of his inspiration came out of watching what was going on in dance at the time...

(KotL, who is back in NYC for some R&R)

[#6 posted by freshacconci, July 28, 2009 5:59 AM]

@#6

Not sure if "blame" is the word I'd use, but I understand the spirit of its use here.

In any case, Cunningham is one of those central figures of art whose influence is staggering. Even if you don't care for modern dance, I can't imagine someone being so cynical as to not find his work beautiful or at the very least fascinating. Is his passing sad? Well, he was 90, but was apparently productive until the end. An amazing story and a legacy of work that I'm sure is unmatched. Try to find some video footage of him at has prime.

[#7 posted by Anonymous, July 31, 2009 1:52 AM]

He was an inspiration to a whole new generation of choreographers.