Merce lives

Dance
It’s exciting to see the Merce Cunningham Trust kick into high gear, deploying, under strict license and supervision, the master’s iconoclastic choreography onto dance troupes around the world (Cunningham died in 2009). Over the years, it’s been controversial whether dancers without specific training in Cunningham’s rigorous technique can properly execute his choreography. Clearly, based upon ...

Robert Johnson writes on demise of Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Dance
“If the demise of a national treasure like the Merce Cunningham Dance Company is not sufficient to convince us we must rescue the arts from the hands of capricious millionaires and from the boom-and-bust cycles of legislative appropriations, then our civilization is lost. It is past time to stop accepting their miserly handouts gratefully, and ...

Merce Cunningham Dance Company journeys to Jerusalem and Moscow

Dance
A special report from arts•meme foreign correspondent Anna Finke, traveling with Merce Cunningham Dance Company. By day, Anna works as MCDC’s wardrobe supervisor and photographer. She blogs at Finke-Ink. Anna writes first on visiting Israel: We were all excited to take in this new country and the Jerusalem Season of Culture was a wonderful host. ...

Neil Greenberg chats about Roaratorio

Dance
“You really see people dancing. It’s especially clear that this was a concern of Merce’s. There’s a lot of humanity in this work.” Thus choreographer Neil Greenberg remembers Roaratorio, the Merce Cunningham work dating from 1983 that will be restaged at Disney Concert Hall next weekend.  A member of Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1979 ...