Renowned Choreographer Merce Cunningham Dies at 90

[cali]

By Sarah Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 27, 2009; 11:40 AM

Merce Cunningham, the avant-garde choreographer whose unorthodox approaches and discoveries throughout a six-decade career made him one of the most important artists of the 20th century, influencing filmmakers and directors as well as choreographers worldwide, died Sunday night, the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation said. He was 90.

With his Merce Cunningham Dance Company, founded in New York in 1953, Mr. Cunningham collaborated with composer John Cage (with whom he also had a romantic partnership) and painters Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and other major figures in the modern art world. He created a body of work that looks like none other -- plotless, spacious and often leisurely paced works, characterized by the clarity, calm and coolness of the dancing. He also developed an elegant and rigorous dance technique based on ballet's pulled-up stretchiness, the weightedness he absorbed from Martha Graham, with whom he danced before striking out on his own, and his own ways of twisting, folding and releasing the body.

But his achievement is not limited to style, subject matter, quantity of works (nearly 200) or even the extraordinary longevity of his world-renowned troupe in a field known for spotty funding and wavering public support. Mr. Cunningham also invented radical working methods that exploded the mold and produced new ways of moving.

Simply put, Mr. Cunningham expanded what is possible in dance.

From his earliest works to his last, Mr. Cunningham flouted convention, embracing the unknown and the unpredictable. For example, in "eyeSpace" (2006), the audience was loaned pre-loaded iPods and encouraged to shuffle the specially commissioned musical selections at will.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072701082.html?hpid=topnews

[cali]

1. kick. Cunningham was a towering figure in the American arts for

decades and decades. His work changed how we see dance and what we see. Without Cunningham, there would have been, for example, no Contact Improvisation.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I wonder if they will mention this on "So You Think You Can Dance" this week. I hope so.