Merce Cunningham Trust Announces Fall Programming For Global Centennial Celebration
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 05, 2018
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Fall activities for the Centennial, which begins this month and extends through all of 2019, include a wide range of performances, film screenings, discussions, education initiatives, and new works by other artists in conversation with Cunningham's work.
Lineup of events continues to grow, and participating companies and institutions continue to announce their programs. Please see the Calendar on the Merce Cunningham Trust website for the most up-to-date schedule.
In November, 2018, the Trust will announce details for Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event, the largest Cunningham Event ever staged. The Trust will issue a larger release for 2019 Centennial programming in December, 2018.
As what would have been Merce Cunningham's 100th birthday nears, his profound cultural impact actively and internationally lives on throughout the arts. His approach to how the body moves in time and space continues to reframe the ways movement and choreography are understood. The Merce Cunningham Trust strives to maintain Cunningham's legacy through active engagement with current and new generations of dancers and audiences. Paramount in its efforts is the goal of ensuring that the proper resources exist for Cunningham's work to flourish with these groups. Recognizing the unique nature of dance, including its ephemerality, the Trust focuses on how Cunningham's choreographic output can be transmitted from body to body, in addition to preserving and disseminating records and written aspects of the work. The Centennial exemplifies the Trust's aims for the future: harnessing Cunningham's work, practice, ideas, and spirit in its perpetuation of his impact.
Over the course of 2018-19, dozens of international performances will demonstrate the extent of Merce Cunningham's influence, and audiences will have the opportunity to experience more than 25 of his dances performed live. In the first of these, September 2, 2018, at the Theater Bonn in Bonn, Germany, CCN - Ballet de Lorraine performed Cunningham's complex and vigorous Sounddance (1975) with a score by David Tudor. CCN - Ballet de Lorraine will continue to tour Sounddance and Cunningham's RainForest (1968), also scored by Tudor with décor by Andy Warhol, stopping in Japan (Yokohama, Triennale Dance Dance Dance, September 16-17; and Kyoto, Rohm Theatre South Hall, September 21-22) and Amiens, France (Maison de la Culture Scène nationale, October 11) this Fall season.
Compagnie CNDC-Angers/Robert Swinston, founded and led by Cunningham's former assistant Robert Swinston (Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust), just celebrated their own 40th birthday with a Cunningham Event - an evening-length work comprising excerpts of Cunningham's choreography arranged specifically for that performance-at the Abbaye de Royaumont in Royaumont, France on September 2. They will also revive BIPED (1999), noted for its use of motion capture technology, which was used to transpose Cunningham's choreography into a set design by Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser; and Beach Birds (1991), with music by Cunningham's closest collaborator John Cage, and costumes and lighting by Marsha Skinner (September 13-14, at Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon in Lyon, France; September 20 at Les Quinconces - Grand Théâtre in Le Mans, France; and September 26-27 at Le Quai in Angers, France).
Touring contemporary dance company Rambert will perform the Rambert Event that was arranged and staged by former Cunningham dancer and rehearsal assistant Jeannie Steele, and features a specially commissioned score by Philip Selway (of Radiohead), Quinta, and Adem Ilhan, and décor by Gerhard Richter (September 20-21, at the Kunstmuseum, Bern in Switzerland). Hudson Valley-based A-Y/dancers will present A To Y MinEvent-likewise comprised of excerpts brought together in a 24-minute piece-arranged and staged by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Jean Freebury (October 13-14 at the Howland Cultural Center, Beacon; November 17-18 at the Trust Performing Arts Center in Lancaster, PA).
As part of their Contemporary Masters program, The Washington Ballet will feature Cunningham's 1980 Duets staged by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Melissa Toogood (October 31-November 4 at the Harman Center, Washington, DC). The Lyon Opera Ballet will again present the iconic Summerspace (1958),with design by Robert Rauschenberg, score by Morton Feldman, and choreography, all created independently of each other. The Lyon Opera Ballet will also present Exchange (1978), staged by Patricia Lent (Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust) and Andrea Weber (both former Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancers) - an epic dance not seen in 25 years, with design by Jasper Johns and music by David Tudor (November 9-November 11, 2018, at Opéra de Lyon). R.B Jérôme Bel will feature the eponymous solo, Cédric Andrieux, conceived by Jérôme Bel for the former Merce Cunningham Company member, in the Centennial. The dance traverses Andrieux's artistic career in words and choreographed excerpts, and, in the process, reveals the emotional and physical life of someone who spent eight years in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (November 30, at the Forum Jacques Prévert).
Cunningham began his investigation of dance on film in the 1970s; this groundbreaking work tapped into the potentials provided by the mobility of the camera, the ability to cut and thereby alter size and rhythm, and the highlighting of specific body parts otherwise far less obvious given the distance of the viewer to the stage. Film presentations throughout the world will revisit the onscreen discoveries made by Cunningham and his collaborators with screenings of his works. The RiuRau Film Festival 2018 will screen the Charles Atlas film of Merce Cunningham's Mélange (2000) in Jesús Pobre, Spain at the Gran RiuRau (September 7, 2018). Govett-Brewster Art Gallery's Len Lye Centre Cinema in New Plymouth, New Zealand, will screen the Charles Atlas/Cunningham collaboration Torse (1977), the dual-screen recording of the dance of the same name, inspired by I Ching, The Book of Changes (September 27, 2018). If the Dancer Dances (by Lise Friedman and Maia Wechsler)-a documentary featuring the Stephen Petronio Company and members of the former Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and the first documentary on the subject of Cunningham's work made since his passing-will be featured at Jacob Burns Film Center's Dance on Film Series (in Pleasantville, NY, October 4, with a Q&A with filmmakers and Stephen Petronio October 7); at the Raindance Film Festival in London (September 30 & October 1); and at Spectrum Dance Festival (October 19 in Carbondale, CO); it premiered as the closing night film at this year's Dance On Camera Festival at Lincoln Center on July 24. For Barcelona's Loop Festival, Xavier Acarín and Trevor Carlson (Centennial Producer, Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust, and former Merce Cunningham Dance Company Executive Director) will curate Love the Daily Work, an exhibition of Cunningham videos in the Barcelona Pavilion (November 12-22). New York's Anthology Film Archives will inaugurate an ongoing series focused on Cunningham's films and videos with a screening of one of Cunningham's earliest filmed dances, the 1966, 16mm capturing of Variations V (a collaboration with John Cage). Gus Solomons, Jr., featured in Variations V, will introduce the film and give a Q&A (November 19).
Barcelona international dance film festival Choreoscope, in partnership with the Dance Department of the Institute of Arts Barcelona, Plató del Cinema, and students from Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and Taller de Músics, will host a workshop with Trevor Carlson using the four processes Cunningham highlighted in his text "Four Events that Have Led to Large Discoveries" (October 1-6) and culminating in a screening of five screendances made by the students in Choreoscope 2019. The festival will also screen the documentary A Lifetime of Dance (2000) and Mélange (2000), both directed by Atlas, on October 9, and Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser's Loops (2000), a 3D film made from the motion capturing of Cunningham performing his solo of the same name, on October 13.
Bogotá, Colombia's Festival Danza en la Ciudad likewise presents a multiform celebration of Merce Cunningham's Centennial. From November 1-23 at the Casona de la Danza, the festival will feature an installation of the 16-webisode series Mondays with Merce, providing a vivid look into the processes of Cunningham and his company in the choreographer's later years. Trevor Carlson will teach a DanceForms Workshop, a software program Cunningham helped develop (November 19-21). Additionally, with Ferran Carvajal, he will present a seminar on Cunningham's legacy at Teatro Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, followed by a screening of the recently remastered 1968 Cunningham filmdance, Assemblage, directed by Richard Moore (November 21). Carlson and Carvajal have collaborated on Not a moment too soon (November 23), a multidisciplinary performance piece recalling the shared journey of Carlson and Cunningham at the end of the choreographer's life.
With extensive collaborations with artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, William Anastasi, Ernesto Neto, Catherine Yass, Tacita Dean, and Mark Lancaster, Cunningham's sphere of influence extended deep into the visual arts world. National Gallery of Australia, in conjunction with its American Masters exhibition celebrating 1940s-80s art from the U.S., will host an international contemporary dance residency (September 4-16) for three dancers with former Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancer Jamie Scott, who will stage excerpts from Landrover, TV Rerun, and other Merce Cunningham works. (They will be performed September 15-16, 2018, at the National Gallery of Australia, in Canberra). Jorge Otero-Pailos will create an immersive installation for New York City Center, featuring a sound collage of dancers learning to dance Merce Cunningham choreography (on view October 15-21 at City Center Harkness Studio). From October 28, 2018-March 31, 2019, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) will present Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens, including Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds, the scenery for the iconic RainForest, and Charles Atlas's MC9, an installation including 21 filmdances.
The Merce Cunningham Trust has supported and built lasting relationships with numerous educational institutions teaching the Cunningham Technique and Cunningham repertory. In various locations in Ireland, Step Up Dance-a performace program which aims to bridge the gap between dance education and professional practice-will perform a Cunningham MinEvent arranged by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancer Daniel Squire (September 5 at Dance 6 in Limerick, September 7 at Firkin Crane in Cork, and September 8 at Dance Ireland's DanceHouse in Dublin). The New World School of the Arts-whose participation throughout the Centennial will take a variety of forms and extend into the Spring season-will, in the Fall season, devote a screening to the work of Charles Atlas(September 27, with a Q&A with Atlas at New World Dance Theater in Miami), and host professional development days for the dance community, led by representatives from the Merce Cunningham Trust and others. Tisch NYU's Second Avenue Dance Company (SADC) will perform an SADC MinEvent, arranged by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Rashaun Mitchell (Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust) with an original score composed by Jonathan Matthews (October 11-13). Barnard College and Columbia University students will perform a MinEvent arranged and staged by former Merce Cuningham Dance Company dancers Jamie Scott and Dylan Crossman, alongside premieres of new works from living choreographers. The event, presented by the Barnard College Department of Dance, will take place at New York Live Arts, Nov. 29-Dec. 1, 2018. In their Fall Repertory Concerts, The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts will feature excerpts of Cunningham's Field Dances (1963) and Canfield (1969) (November 29-30 at the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater in Valencia, CA, and December 7-8 at the REDCAT in Los Angeles). At the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Jean Freebury, Patricia Lent, and Andrea Weber will conduct a Merce Cunningham Repertory Workshop where participants will learn solos selected from six decades of Merce Cunningham's choreography (December 4 - 15 at UNCSA).
Major funding for the Centennial celebration is provided by the Merce Cunningham Trust, the Paul L. Wattis Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Judith Pisar. Additional funding is provided by Judith and Alan Fishman, Molly Davies, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
MERCE CUNNINGHAM CENTENNIAL - SCHEDULE OF ANNOUNCED EVENTS
CCN - Ballet de Lorraine
Sounddance/Rainforest
Sounddance
Bonn, Germany - Beethovenfest - Theater Bonn - Opernhaus
September 2, 2018
Sounddance
Yokohama, Japan - Triennale Dance Dance Dance - Kaat Main Hall
September 16-17, 2018
Sounddance
Kyoto, Japan - Rohm Theatre South Hall
September 21-22, 2018
RainForest
Amiens, France - Maison de la Culture Scène nationale
October 11, 2018
CCN - Ballet de Lorraine will perform two Cunningham dances, RainForest (1968) and Sounddance (1975), with works from other choreographers, on tour across Fall 2018.
The title for "RainForest" came from Cunningham's childhood memories of the Northwest, and the rainforest in the Olympic Peninsula. "RainForest" differed from Cunningham's other pieces in that, with the exception of Cunningham, each of the six dancers performed his or her role, then left the stage and never returned. Andy Warhol agreed to let Cunningham use his installation "Silver Clouds"-a number of Mylar pillows filled with helium, so that they floated freely in the air. The dancers wore flesh-colored leotards and tights, which Jasper Johns (uncredited) cut with a razor blade, to give the costumes a roughened appearance, in order to come closer to accommodating Warhol's request that they dance nude. The music was by David Tudor, and evoked the chirping and chattering of birds and animals.
Cunningham created Sounddance upon his return after spending nine weeks with the Paris Opera Ballet in 1973, where he created Un Jour ou Deux. Back with his own dancers, he created a work in opposition to ballet's uniformity and unison. He choreographed a fast and vigorous "organized chaos." The stage is divided in the middle of its depth by a gracefully draped plush gold curtain, designed by artist Mark Lancaster. This division or compressing of the space adds to the overlapping and frenetic choreography, as if we were seeing a miniature dance cosmos through a microscope. The dancers enter the stage as if thrust from the curtain, and at the end of the dance, with their exit, they are swallowed by it, as though they were being sucked into a wind tunnel. Musician and composer David Tudor created a powerful and driving score or Sounddance. It provides the perfect energetic accompaniment to Cunningham's fast paced choreography.
Tickets for the Yokohama event available here; tickets for the Kyoto event available here; tickets for the Amiens event available here.
[Additional performances to be announced in December]
National Gallery of Australia
American Masters: Merce Cunningham Contemporary Dance Residency
National Gallery of Australia
Parkes Pl E, Parkes ACT 2600, Australia
Residency: September 4-16, 2018
Performances: September 15 & 16, 2018 at 12pm & 2pm
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), with support from the Embassy of the United States of America, is hosting an international contemporary dance residency in association with American Masters 1940-1980. At the NGA, former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member and stager, Jamie Scott, will work with three Australian-based dancers to remount excerpts from several Merce Cunningham dances including Landrover (1972) and TV Rerun (1972).?
Tickets/information available here.
Step Up
Step Up Dance
September 6, 2018 at 6pm
Dance Limerick (St John's Church)
John's Square
Limerick, Ireland
September 7, 2018 at 6pm
Firkin Crane
John Redmond St
Shandon, Cork, Ireland
September 8, 2018 at 4pm
Dance Ireland, DanceHouse,
Foley Street, Dublin 1
This triple bill performance will feature a Merce Cunningham MinEvent, arranged and staged by Daniel Squire, Catherine Young's I Call to You, and John Scott's Every Gesture.
Step Up Dance is an intensive performance programme which aims to bridge the gap between dance education and professional practice. It is a partnership between the Arts Council, Dance Ireland, Dance Limerick and the University of Limerick. In 2018, Step Up plays host to six young recently graduated dancers: Rocio Dominguez, Katrina Galvin, Mintesinot Getachew, Rebecca Lee, Evgenia Sizmina and Kathy Young.
The RiuRau Film Festival
Mélange
September 7, 2018
The Gran RiuRau
Jesús Pobre, Spain
http://www.riuraufilmfestival.com/el-festival
The RiuRau Film Festival 2018 will screen the Charles Atlas film of Merce Cunningham's Melange (2000) in Jesús Pobre, Spain at the Gran RiuRau.
Ladies of the Lake Book Club
Cunningham Book Study and Workshop
led by Patricia Lent
September 13, 2018
Busy Bee Yoga Barn
Sheldrake, NY
A special meeting of the Ladies of the Lake Book Club will celebrate the Merce Cunningham Centennial by devoting an evening to Merce Cunningham. The 20 participants, who have prepared by studying videos, essays and other materials, will come together in the Busy Bee Yoga Barn for an introductory session about Cunningham's use of chance operations as a choreographic tool.
Compagnie CNDC-Angers/Robert Swinston
BIPED, Beach Birds
September 13-14, 2018
(Performed as part of the 18e Biennale de la Danse)
Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon
4 Rue Charles Dullin
69002 Lyon, France
September 20, 2018
Les Quinconces - Grand Théâtre
4, Place des Jacobins
72000 Le Mans - France
September 26-27, 2018
Le Quai
Cale de la Savatte
49100 Angers, France
Robert Swinston, former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member, former Assistant to the Choreographer, and now Artistic Director at the CNDC in Angers, presents two quintessential Cunningham dances in their repertory, among others, during the Centennial. Beach Birds with music by John Cage is performed by 11 dancers in unforgettable costumes designed by Marsha Skinner. BIPED (1999) features motion captured choreography by Cunningham that is incorporated into the set design by Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser. The music by Gavin Bryars is performed live.
Tickets/information for Lyon performances available here; for Le Mans performances here; and for Angers performances here.
Historic Landmarks Preservation Center
Cultural Medallion Ceremony
September 20, 2018, 12pm
Westbeth
55 Bethune Street
New York, NY 10014
All are welcome to attend this Cultural Medallion Ceremony honoring Merce Cunningham's almost forty years of working at Westbeth, with Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Chair, Historic Landmarks Preservation Center; Ken Tabachnick, Executive Director, Merce Cunningham Trust; Gus Solomons jr., performer, mentor, writer; Joan Davidson, President Emeritus, J.M. Kaplan Fund; Laura Kuhn, Director, John Cage Trust; Alastair Macaulay, Chief Dance Critic, The New York Times; Richard Kostelanetz, artist, author, and critic; and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Artistic Director, Baryshnikov Arts Center.
Rambert
Rambert Event
République Géniale Festival
September 20-21, 2018 at 8pm
Kunstmuseum, Bern
Hodlerstrasse 8-12
3011 Bern - Switzerland
The Rambert Event - in keeping with Cunningham's legendary Events - features music and scenic elements that have been created separately and only brought together in the moment of performance. Set to a specially commissioned score by Philip Selway (of Radiohead), Quinta and Adem Ilhan, the Rambert Event features extracts from pieces of Cunningham's choreography that have previously appeared in Rambert's repertory, arranged and staged by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member and rehearsal assistant Jeannie Steele. The set and costumes are based on the Cage series of paintings by world-famous German artist Gerhard Richter.
Tickets/information available here.
New World School of the Arts
Merce in Miami 100
Dance on Film: Charles Atlas
New World Dance Theater
25 NE 2 Street, 8th Floor
Miami, FL, 33132
September 27, 2018 at 7pm
Award-winning filmmaker and multimedia artist, collaborator with such artists as Merce Cunningham, Marina Abromovic, Michael Clark and others, Charles Atlas will screen and discuss his work, followed by a Q & A. Mr. Atlas has been recognized by three "Bessie" (New York Dance and Performance) Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Best Documentary at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and numerous other recognitions for his ground-breaking work.
New World School of the Arts & Adrienne Arsht Center Education and Community Engagement Professional Development Days for Dance Community
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami
Friday, October 26, 2018
A lively and engaging professional development day for Miami-Dade County Public Schools dance teachers, this event will include a rich assortment of workshops and classes with information to bring back to the classroom, led by representatives from the Merce Cunningham Trust, Ballet Hispanico, and others.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
A day of classes and workshops for professional dancers, choreographers, and educators led by representatives from the Merce Cunningham Trust, Ballet Hispanico, and others. Free and open to dance professionals.
[More programming from New World School for the Arts to be announced in December]
Choreoscope
Choreoscope is the International Dance Film Festival of Barcelona. Dedicated not only to those passionate about dance, but also to those who enjoy quality cinema. Movies know no boundaries, and neither does dance: what joins them is the universal language of movement.
Merce Cunningham Workshop
October 1 - 6, 2018
Institute of Art, Barcelona, Sitges (Dance Department)
Plató del Cinema (Film School)
students from Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and Taller de Músics
Choreoscope hosts the Merce Cunningham Workshop, led by Trevor Carlson (Centennial Producer, Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust,and former Merce Cunningham Dance Company Executive Director), imparting aspects of the choreographer's practice such as the separation of music from dance, chance procedures, filmdance, and DanceForms software. The opening night of Choreoscope, October 9, will feature a live performance based on the workshop.
Choreoscope 2018
A Lifetime of Dance & Mélange
October 9, 2018 at 8:30pm
Cinema Maldà
Carrer del Pi, 5
08002 Barcelona - Spain
http://www.choreoscope.com/especial18/
Loops
October 13, 2018 at 7pm
Filmoteca de Catalunya
Plaça de Salvador Seguí, 1-9
08001 Barcelona - Spain
http://www.choreoscope.com/3d/
Choreoscope will screen three Cunningham films. A Lifetime of Dance (2000, directed by Charles Atlas) is a portrait of Cunningham packed with rare archive footage of his company, featuring Cunningham performing an improvisation especially for the film, and rehearsing with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Mélange, also by Charles Atlas, with music by John Cage, will be featured on October 9. Loops (2000), derived from a motion-captured recording of Merce Cunningham´s solo dance for hands and fingers, created by Mark Downie, Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser, will screen as part of a Special 3D session, October 13.
Tickets/information will be made available here.
If the Dancer Dances
Raindance Film Festival, London
Vue Picadilly
September 30 & October 1, 2018
Dance on Film Series
Jacob Burns Film Center, Pleasantville, NY
October 4 & 7, 2018
Spectrum Dance Festival
Launchpad, Carbondale, CO
October 19, 2018
If the Dancer Dances invites viewers into the intimate world of the dance studio, where three former members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company teach Cunningham's 1968 RainForest to the Stephen Petronio Company. One of this generation's leading modern dance choreographers, Stephen is determined to help his dancers breathe new life into this great work. Timed to coincide with Cunningham's centennial, the film tracks the dancers' often intensely personal challenges, as they reveal what it takes to keep a dance alive. If the Dancer Dances is written and produced by Lise Friedman and Maia Wechsler.
[Additional dates to be announced in December]
Second Avenue Dance Company (SADC)
SADC MinEvent
October 11-13 at 7:30pm
Jack Crystal Theater
NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dance Department
111 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
16 students in their third and final year of school in the Second Avenue Dance Company will perform a MinEvent arranged by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member, Rashaun Mitchell (Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust), drawing from Ground Level Overlay, Pictures, Change of Address and Pond Way, with an original score composed by Jonathan Matthews.
A-Y/dancers
A-Y Dancers at the Howland Cultural Center
with an A To Y MinEvent
October 13, 2018 at 8pm; October 14, 2018 at 4pm
Howland Cultural Center
477 Main Street
Beacon, NY 12508
Trust Dance: The Durang Dance Collective presents A-Y/dancers
with an A To Y MinEvent
November 17, 2018 at 7:30pm; November 18, 2018 at 2pm
The Trust Performing Arts Center
37 N Market Street
Lancaster, PA 17603
A-Y/dancers will premiere their first evening length performance at the historic Howland Cultural Center (and later at the Trust Performing Arts Center). A-Y/dancers will perform an A To Y MinEvent, an arrangement of Cunningham works from the 1960s, 1970s and early 2000s uniquely staged for them by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Jean Freebury. The MinEvent will share a bill with a work by acclaimed dancemaker Doug Varone and a new commission by emerging choreographer Hannah Garner.
Tickets/information will soon be available here.
New York City Center
Jorge Otero-Pailos: Répétiteur
October 15-21, 2018
City Center Harkness Studio
130 w 56th Street
New York, NY 10019
Jorge Otero-Pailos works at the intersection of art, architecture, and preservation. Ethics of Dust has both restored and created site-specific, reflective installations within historic sites like Westminster Hall in London and the Doge's Palace in Venice. For City Center's 75th Anniversary Season, he has created Répétiteur, an immersive installation in their Harkness Studio, which explores how dance masters pass their choreography from generation to generation through a trusted disciple who serves as their living archive. The work will draw attention to the material evidence that the seemingly immaterial transfer of dance knowledge leaves behind: the dust and other residue left on the surfaces of the room by the labor of dancers. Otero-Pailos has transferred this residue onto illuminated peelings that cast the rehearsal room in an unusual, meditative light and are accompanied by a sound collage of dancers learning to dance Merce Cunningham's choreography from stager Patricia Lent. The inspiration is an inspiring expression of the history, memory, and impermanence of dance.
[Additional Dates for Répétiteur and more programming from City Center will be announced in December]
Len Lye Centre Cinema
Torse
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
Len Lye Centre Cinema
42 Queen Street
New Plymouth, New Zealand
A collaboration with choreographer Merce Cunningham, Charles Atlas' film of the remarkably difficult dance Torse features a score by pioneering composer Maryanne Amacher. Torse has been generously provided by the Merce Cunningham Trust and is being screened as part of the official Merce Cunningham Centennial Celebration. This film is screened in association with our current exhibition Sensory Agents. Featuring a double screen, Torse was filmed in 1977 at the University of Washington, Seattle and first screened publicly at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Lincoln Center in 1978.
Information for the free event available here.
LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens
October 28, 2018-March 31, 2019
LACMA, BCAM, Level 1
5905 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
During his prolific 60-year career, choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) revolutionized dance by challenging every aspect of the form, and in the process inventing wholly new ways to create and present his work. Perhaps most radical was his idea that all the elements of a dance-movement, music, costumes, and décor-could be created independently of one another, coming together only during the "common time" of a performance.
Celebrating the Merce Cunningham Centennial, this exhibition presents two large works made by artists associated with the choreographer's company-Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds and Charles Atlas's MC9. Warhol's whimsical Silver Clouds was used as décor for Cunningham's 1968 dance RainForest. MC9, short for "Merce Cunningham to the ninth power," is an immersive installation with excerpts from 21 dances for camera and documentary videos Atlas made with Cunningham. Two videos documenting early Cunningham dances are screened in an adjacent gallery: Changeling (1958), a solo piece, and Night Wandering (1964), a duet with star dancer Carolyn Brown.
Tickets/information available here.
The Washington Ballet
Contemporary Masters
October 31-November 4, 2018
The Harman Center
610 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Included in The Washington Ballet's 2018-2019 season, Merce Cunningham's Duets will be featured in the company's Contemporary Masters program at the Harman Center. The performance will showcase works by iconic choreographers who have defined modern dance including repertoire from Mark Morris's Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes and
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