Merce Cunningham Activities Announced for LA, Kicks Off May 23

As part of the 2009-2010 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, the world premiere of the reconstructed Roaratorio by Merce Cunningham will be presented at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Legacy Tour, a final two-year celebration of the choreographer's lifetime of artistic achievement. For three performances only on June 4, 5, and 6, this engagement will be the final opportunity for the people of Los Angeles to see Cunningham's work performed by the dancers he personally trained. 

Each performance of Roaratorio will include a pre-performance discussion with Patricia Lent, MCDC Director of Licensing, and David Vaughan, MCDC Archivist, moderated by Bonnie Brooks, noted dance writer, producer and Chair of The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, and a post performance discussion with Trevor Carlson, Executive Director of Cunningham Dance Foundation and MCDC dancers, on the reconstruction of Roaratorio. The post-performance discussions are moderated by Sasha Anawalt, dance historian, author/arts journalist & director of the USC Annenberg Arts Journalism Programs.

The MCDC performances will be accompanied by a range of public programs, including: The Wooden Floor Project on May 15 and 16 in which student dancers will perform excerpts from Roaratorio; Merce on Film (partnership between Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, MOCA and Dance Camera West) on May 23, with screenings of three short films highlighting the collaborations of choreographer Merce Cunningham with Robert Rauschenberg, Charles Atlas, and John Cage; The Legacy of Merce, a talk between noted dance writer, producer and Chair of Columbia College Chicago's dance program, Bonnie Brooks and Trevor Carlson, Executive Director of Cunningham Dance Foundation, part of Museum of Contemporary Art's Art Talk Series on June 3 (partnership between MOCA and Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center); and their Family Movement Workshops on June 10 in which all can participate in Cunningham movement.

Two other events are a master class for Los Angeles County High School for the Arts dance students, which will be taught by Robert Swinston, Director of Choreography for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on June 3, and the Center Dance Arts/Music Center Annual Fund Post-Performance Reception on June 4, immediately after the first performance. (Full details of these events follow.)

To conclude Merce Cunningham Dance Company's final appearance in Los Angeles, the Company will perform a special benefit at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) on Monday, June 7, with guest artist Mikhail Baryshnikov to support the Cunningham Dance Foundation's Legacy Plan for the preservation of Merce Cunningham's artistic legacy and REDCAT. The event will feature a one-night performance by Baryshnikov and MCDC, as well as a screening of selections from Charles Atlas' new film With Merce.

About Merce Cunningham and The Legacy Tour

Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his seventy-year career, and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. Merce Cunningham Dance Company, founded in 1953, has forged a distinctive style reflecting Cunningham's technique and his radical approach to space, time, and technology. The Company's collaborations with groundbreaking artists from all disciplines have redefined the way audiences experience the visual and performing arts.

Following Cunningham's passing on July 26, 2009, Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) began preparations for a two-year world tour that celebrates his lifetime of creativity, and allows audiences a final opportunity to see Cunningham's work performed by the company he personally trained. The Legacy Tour is a component of the Cunningham Dance Foundation's precedent-setting Legacy Plan, which delineates the future of the MCDC and ensures the preservation of Cunningham's artistic legacy. The multifaceted plan also supports career transition for the dancers, musicians, and staff who have invested their time and creative efforts into the realization of Cunningham's vision, and provides for the creation of digital "Dance Capsules" that will bring Cunningham's work to life for future generations.

The Legacy Tour, which launched in February 2010 and culminates with a New Year's Eve performance in New York City on December 31, 2011, features the revival of key works from the Cunningham repertory, and will help to cement a full understanding of the choreographer's artistic contributions and achievements. MCDC will disband following this final performance.

Dance at the Music Center previously presented MCDC in its second season, June of 2005.

About "Roaratorio"

Of all his collaborations, Merce Cunningham's work with John Cage, his life partner from the 1940s until Cage's death in 1992, had the greatest influence on his practice. Together, Cunningham and Cage proposed a number of radical innovations. The most famous and controversial of these concerned the relationship between dance and music, which they concluded may occur in the same time and space, but should be created independently of one another. The two also made extensive use of chance procedures, abandoning not only musical forms, but narrative and other conventional elements of dance composition-such as cause and effect, and climax and anticlimax. For Cunningham the subject of his dances was always dance itself.

Roaratorio is performed to an original recording of John Cage's complex 1979 composition Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake. Cage traveled through Ireland recording sounds in places mentioned in Joyce's novel, which were later assembled to form an hour-long piece. Using lines from "Finnegans Wake," Cage wrote mesostics (poems constructed so a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text) on "JAMESJOYCE," which were read aloud during the performance, and scored parts based on Irish traditional music-jigs, reels, airs, and songs-that are played throughout his recording of the work. Cunningham's choreography incorporates motifs on jigs and reels, a "hopping" dance, promenades and strolls, and folk dances that suddenly expand into huge communal circles.

The revival and presentation of Roaratorio has been made possible by the generous support of American Express, and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation, deserves great art.

About The Music Center

The Music Center - Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County is one of the largest and most highly regarded performing arts centers in the United States. Every year, almost 2 million people visit its four main venues - Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and Walt Disney Concert Hall - along with its vibrant collection of outdoor theatres, plazas, and gardens. The Music Center produces a variety of programming including Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, Active Arts at the Music Center, and The Blue Ribbon Presents Global Pop, along with programming for children and families throughout the year. The Center also provides extensive services and leadership in support of K-12 arts education, and offers tours of all four venues. The Music Center is home to four internationally acclaimed resident companies: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, LA Opera and Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center

The Music Center's ambitious dance program began in 2000 with the sold-out presentation of the Bolshoi Ballet in its historic production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet as well as a new interpretation of Don Quixote. Since then, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center has established a distinguished reputation - locally, nationally and internationally - and has become one of the premier presenters of dance in Southern California. The Music Center is one of the only venues in Los Angeles offering a full season of dance programming, consistently featuring the world's most illustrious dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The program provides learning opportunities at the Center and throughout the county for adults and children as well as free and low-cost tickets, open rehearsals, pre-and post-performance talks, school lecture and demonstrations, and community classes with visiting artists.

2009-2010 Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center season
Merce Cunningham Dance Company Final Engagement
Calendar Listing for Roaratorio and Related Events

Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Walt Disney Concert Hall - 3 Performances
Friday, June 4, 2010 - 7:30pm
Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 7:30pm
Sunday, June 6, 2010 - 2:00pm

Tickets: Ticketmaster Phone Charge at (800) 982-2787; Ticketmaster Outlets; www.ticketmaster.com, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office.
For groups of 15 or more, call CTG Group Sales at (213) 972-7231. Artists and Program are subject to change. Information: www.musiccenter.org and www.merce.org.

Program: Roaratorio*
Choreographer/Composer: Merce Cunningham/John Cage
*Co-commissioned by the Music Center, Festival Montpellier Danse 2010, and Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d'Automne à Paris.

Performance includes Pre-performance Discussion and Post-performance TalkBack
Pre-performance Discussion with Patricia Lent, MCDC Director of Licensing and David Vaughan, MCDC Archivist, and moderated by Bonnie Brooks, noted dance writer, producer and Chair of The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. Discussion includes partnership between Merce Cunningham and John Cage; the background about of Roaratorio, the reconstruction process.
Post-performance Discussion Moderated by Sasha Anawalt, historian, arts journalist, and Director of the USC Annenberg Arts Journalism Program. The TalkBack features Trevor Carlson, Executive Director of Cunningham Dance Foundation and MCDC dancers, discussing their participation in the reconstruction of Roaratorio, how they work in general, and The Legacy Plan and Tour.

The Wooden Floor Project
May 15 & 16, 2010 - 7:30PM
The Studio at Sage Hill
20402 Newport Coast Drive
Newport Coast, California 92657
Information: www.sagehillschool.org

Student dancers perform excerpts of Roaratorio as taught by Jean Freebury. Jean will work with the students during from May 6 to 14. Performances will be held at The Studio at Sage Hill. (The showing will present the choreography only, without the original music, costumes, décor, and lighting design).

Merce on Film
Partnership between Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, Museum of Contemporary Art and Dance Camera West
Sunday, May 23, 2010 - 3:00 PM
Auditorium at MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 South Grand Ave., Los Angeles CA 90012
Admission: FREE with Museum Admission
Information: www.moca.org or contact education@moca.org or (213) 621-1745

Three short films highlighting the legendary collaborations of choreographer Merce Cunningham with other renowned artists. Films include the never before screened "Story" with costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and Merce himself dancing, "Melange" a film shot in Paris and directed by Cunningham and Charles Atlas, and "Beach Birds for Camera" with music by longtime collaborator John Cage.

Master Class at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Taught by Robert Swinston, Director of Choreography for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Thursday, June 3, 2010 - 10:00 to 11:30AM
Limited to dance students of Los Angeles County High School for the Arts

Art Talk Series at Museum of Contemporary Art
"The Legacy of Merce"
Partnership between MOCA and Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center
Thursday, June 3, 2010 - 6:30 to 7:30PM
Auditorium at MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012
Admission: Thursdays are FREE at MOCA
Information: www.moca.org or contact education@moca.org or (213) 621-1745

A conversation between Bonnie Brooks, noted dance writer, producer and Chair of Columbia College Chicago's dance program, and Trevor Carlson, Executive Director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Both Brooks and Carlson, who knew the Cunningham for many years and closely observed his creative process, will share colorful memories of Cunningham's innovative approach to choreography and his collaborations with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage.

Center Dance Arts/Music Center Annual Fund Post-Performance Reception
Friday, June 4, 2010, following the performance
Founders Room, Walt Disney Concert Hall
For more information, (213) 972-3343

Center Dance Arts/Music Center Annual Fund Post Pre-Performance Patrons Lounge
Friday, June 5, 2010 -- 5:30-7:30PM
Blue Ribbon Garden, Walt Disney Concert Hall

Family Movement Workshops
Sunday, June 6, 2010 - 9:30 am, 11:00 am
Admission: FREE but RSVP required. Limited space available, and reservations limited to four per family.
RSVP by Friday, May 28; to reserve or for information call (213) 972-4305.

At these movement workshops for children and their families, inspired by Merce Cunningham, participants create their own dance "events" based on their observations of movement, time and their surroundings. Chance elements are encouraged through the rolling of dice and everyone is encouraged to participate - for children ages 6 and up (children must be accompanied by parent or guardian). Comfortable street clothes and tennis shoes are highly suggested.

 

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