Merce Cunningham
1919 - 2009
Merce CunninghamCunningham was born in Washington 1919 an died in 2009 at his New York apartment. He started dancing at the age of 12 with Maude Barrette and his first style of dance was tap. Cunningham studied theatre at the cornish school of fine arts and then changed to dance a year later. He became a professional at the age of twenty and had a 70 year long career as a professional dancer. He was active choreographer until his death in 2009. Cunningham worked with john cage from the 1940’s to 1992. Cage died in 1992 which ended their career together. Cunningham used motion capture technology to film his dances. 4 books and 3 major exhibitions were based on his dance and contribution to the arts.
Cunningham left his dance up to chance. He choreographed the dance separate to the music and joined the music and the choreography at the rehearsal or the performance. He used a dice to determine how a dancer should move. In 1939 Cunningham joined the Martha Graham dance co. to explore ideas. 1994 was Cunningham’s first solo show. In 1953 Cunningham formed him own dance company. Paul Taylor, Trish Brown and Lucinda Childs were some of the students trained by Cunningham. Cunningham had collaborated with dance artists from all artistic disciplines. Some of the artist he collaborated with were Andy Warhol and Ray Ichtenstien. Cunningham won British Lawrence Oliver award in 1985, Mac Arthur Fellowship in 1985, National Medal of Arts in 1990, office of the legion d’honneur in France in 2004, Jacobs pillow dance award in 2009, Japans Praemium Imperial in 2005. Cunningham choreographed more that 150 dances over 800 events. some of his most successful work were El Penitente (1939), Appal Chian Spring (1944), Root of an in focus (1944) Biped (1999) A duet with Mikhail Baryshnihov and The Seasons (1947). Cunningham dance characteristics are distinguished by constant innovation and varied in mood. He was not interested in telling stories and left the dance completely up to chance. Cunningham made made sure the dancer was nothing but themselves. |