Merce Cunningham, considered the “holy man” of new US dance, one of the greatest choreographers of our time, was born in Centralia (Washington) in 1919. He trained at the Cornish Institute of Allied Arts in Seattle, where he met John Cage.
From 1939 to 1945 he was a solo dancer in Martha Graham’s company. In 1944, in New York, he presented his first solo program in collaboration with the composer John Cage. In the summer of 1953, at Black Mountain College, in North Carolina, Merce Cunningham began working with a small group of dancers: it was the first group of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. From then until today, he has created more than one hundred choreographies presented in the United States, in Europe, in the Far East and every year in New York.
An extraordinary innovator of dance theater, Merce Cunningham has influenced more than any other choreographer the generations of authors of “post-modern dance” and new dance.
His original general aesthetics – dissociation between music and dance, objectified and anti-emotional movement, adoption of the principle of “alea”, use of non-traditional spaces – has represented a fundamental cultural reference point for all the artistic avant-gardes of the 60s onwards.
For the scenes and music of his shows, Merce Cunningham has involved some of the greatest contemporary artists. In addition to his favorite John Cage, musicians such as David Tudor, Gordon Mumma, La Monte Young, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Earle Brown, Christian Wolf, Pauline Oliveros have worked with him. For several years Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Jhons and Mark Lancaster have collaborated regularly with the Merce Cunningham Company as set and costume designers. This role is currently entrusted to William Anastasi and Dove Bradshaw. Other painters, designers and sculptors have collaborated on several occasions with Merce Cunningham: Richard Lippold, David Hare, Sonja Sekula, Remy Charlip, Frank Stella, Andy Wharol, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Neil Jenney, Richard Nelson, Beverly Emmons, Morris Graves, Charles Atlas and Monika Fullemann. Merce Cunningham was the first choreographer who composed (in the early 1970s) works specifically for video, inaugurating the genre of “video-dance”.
