Merce
Cunningham -
Merce Cunningham, born in Centralia,
Washington, received his first formal dance and theater training
at the Cornish School (now Cornish College) in Seattle. From 1939
to 1945, he was a soloist in the company of Martha Graham. During
that time, he began to choreograph independently, presenting his first
New York solo concert with John Cage in April 1944. He continued
to present annual concerts, by himself or with an ad hoc group
of dancers, until the formation of Merce Cunningham Dance Company
at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1953. Since that time
Cunningham has choreographed over one
hundred and fifty works for his company.
He has also choreographed
two works for New
York City Ballet: The Seasons (John Cage/Isamu
Noguchi, 1947), and a version of Summerspace (Morton
Feldman/Robert Rauschenberg, original 1958, NYCB version 1966).
Un Jour ou Deux (John Cage/Jasper Johns, 1973), an
evening-length work commissioned by the Paris Autumn Festival
for the ballet of the Paris Opéra, was presented first in 1973
and again in January 1986 in a revised version. Cunningham's
work Duets entered the repertory of American
Ballet Theatre in May 1982 in New York City. His works
have also been included in the repertories of numerous ballet
and modern dance companies around the world, among them the
Boston Ballet; Charleroi/Danses; Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm;
GRCOP (the experimental wing of the Paris Opéra Ballet); Ohio
Ballet; Pacific
Northwest Ballet; Pennsylvania Ballet; Rambert Dance Company,
London; Repertory Dance Theatre, Salt Lake City; and Théâtre
du Silence, France. In June 1990, Points in Space was
revived by the Paris Opéra Ballet. Breakers, commissioned by the Kennedy
Center's Ballet Commissioning Project for the Boston Ballet,
also entered the repertory of Merce Cunningham Dance Company
in March 1994.
Cunningham collaborated
with the filmmaker Charles Atlas on three original works for
video: Westbeth (1974), Blue Studio: Five Segments
(WNET/TV Lab, 1975), and Fractions I and II (1978);
and three filmdances: Locale (1979), Channels/Inserts
(1981), and Coast Zone (1983). Fractions, Locale,
Channels/Inserts, and Coast Zone were all subsequently
remade for stage presentation. Deli Commedia, a videodance
made in collaboration with Elliot Caplan, who had succeeded
Atlas as filmmaker-in-residence, was presented on the PBS
Great Performances series in November 1985. Points in
Space, the most recent original videodance by Caplan and
Cunningham, was co-produced by the Cunningham Dance Foundation
and the BBC
and shot in London in May 1986. Points in Space has also been
remade for the stage. Cunningham and Caplan again collaborated
on Changing Steps, which was taped in October 1988 at the Sundance
Institute and the Osmond Studio, in Utah, and has been broadcast
worldwide. In September 1990 Caplan's film portrait, Cage/Cunningham,
produced and distributed by the Cunningham Dance Foundation,
received its world premiere at the Cinémathèque de la Danse
in Paris. In December 1990 Cunningham and Caplan collaborated
on Beach Birds For Camera, a film version of a dance
choreographed that year.
Cunningham's other activities include classes and workshops at the
Merce Cunningham Studio, and workshops and lectures both in the United
States and abroad, most recently (with Robert Swinston) a workshop
in Cunningham technique in Moscow, March 1995, sponsored by the Trust
for Mutual Understanding.
Cunningham has collaborated
on two books about his work: Changes: Notes on Choreography,
with Frances Starr (Something Else Press, New York, 1968), and
The Dancer and the Dance, interviews with Jacqueline
Lesschaeve (Marion Boyars, New York and London 1985). The latter,
originally published in French, has also been translated into
German and Italian. Merce Cunningham/Dancing in Space and
Time, a collection of critical essays edited by Richard
Kostelanetz, was published in 1992 by a cappella books. Cunningham
has received two Guggenheim
Fellowships for choreography, in 1954 and 1959; the Dance
Magazine Award, 1960; the Medal of the Society for the
Advancement of Dancing in Sweden, 1964; Gold Medal for Choreographic
Invention at the Fourth International Festival of Dance, Paris
1966; an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of
Illinois, 1972; the New York State Award, 1975; the Capezio
Award, 1977; the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award
for lifetime contribution to dance, 1982. Also in that year,
Cunningham was made Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters
by the French
Minister of Culture. In 1983, he received the Mayor of New
York's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, and in 1984 was
inducted as an Honorary Member into the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters. In June 1985, he received a MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship, and the following December he was a recipient
of the Kennedy Center Honors at the White
House. Cunningham's dance Pictures was given the
Laurence Olivier award for best new dance production in London
in 1985. In October 1987, Cunningham received the Algur
H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas, TX. In January 1988, he was
awarded the Dance/USA National Honor in New York City. At the
end of his company's residency in Arles in July 1989, he was
made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by President Mitterrand
of France, and he received the Porselli Prize in Cremona, Italy
in April 1990.
In September 1990,
Cunningham was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President
Bush in a ceremony at the White House, and in October he was
the recipient of the Digital Dance Premier Award presented in
London. Cunningham received the Award of Merit from the Association
of Performing Arts Presenters at their conference in New York
City in December 1990. In May 1993, the Wexner Prize was awarded
to John Cage and Merce Cunningham at the Wexner Center for the
Arts in Columbus, OH. In June 1993, Cunningham was inducted
into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga
Springs, NY and in July 1993, he was awarded the Medal of Honor
of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in El Escorial, Spain.
In October 1993, he was given a "Bessie" Award presented
by New York's Dance Theater Workshop in recognition for outstanding
creative achievement for his dance, Enter. Cunningham
also received the 1993 London Dance and Performance award for
Best Performance by a Visiting Artist for the Company's Events
series at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Autumn of 1992. The International
Society of Performing Arts Administrators (ISPAA) honored Cunningham
with the Tiffany Award in December 1993. For Cunningham's 75th
birthday, Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani of New York City proclaimed April 16, 1994 "Merce
Cunningham Day." In May 1995, he received the Honorary
Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, from Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Connecticut, and in July 1995, Merce Cunningham received the
Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale.
50th Anniversary Season
— 2993 Next Wave Festival
Cunningham, Merce: Forward & Reverse — 1997 Next Wave
Festival
Roaratorio/Inlets 2 — 1996 Next Wave Festival
Mixed Repertory — 1974 Spring
Mixed Repertory — 1973 Spring, 1972 Spring, 1971 Winter,
1970 Fall, 1969 Spring, 1968 Spring, 1967 Winter.
Mixed Repertory —
1966 Spring
Mixed Repertory — 1957 Fall
Mixed Repertory —
1954 Winter