Merce cunningham biography timeline examples

Merce Cunningham

Biography

A seminal figure of the twentieth-century avant-garde, American choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) engaged the boundaries of dance for more than seventy years. Mikhail Baryshnikov, who performed a duet with the eighty-year-old choreographer in 1999, noted in Charles Atlas' biographical documentary A Lifetime of Dance (2000) that Cunningham "deconstructed classicism in his language." Emerging from and expanding upon traditions of theatre, classical ballet and modern dance, Cunningham radically rearticulated the semiotics of the dancing body and created a distinctive language that survives him.

Quoting a Cunningham dance "phrase," the viewer intuits a pedestrian hopping up on a sidewalk or the careful craning of a bird's neck, sometimes vacillating wildly between staccato and legato paces. What the reader of the dance will not come across are conventional elements of narrative structure such as, in Cunningham archivist David Vaughan's words,

•

Merce Cunningham

American dancer and choreographer (1919–2009)

Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other disciplines, including musicians John Cage, David historisk period, Brian Eno, and graphic artists Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and Jasper Johns; and mode designer Rei Kawakubo. Works that he produced with these artists had a profound impact on avant-garde art beyond the world of dance.

As a choreographer, teacher, and leader of the Merce cunningham Dance Company,^[2] Cunningham had a profound influence on modern dance. Many dancers who trained with cunningham formed their own companies. They include Paul Taylor, Remy Charlip, Viola Farber, Charles Moulton, Karole Armitage, Deborah Hay, Robert Kovich, Foofwa d'Imobilité, Kim

•

Merce Cunningham was an American choreographer and was, before his death in July 2009, probably the most famous living choreographer in the world. His work in the field of contemporary dance spanned more than half a century, during which time he and his Merce Cunningham Dance Company toured the globe, challenging and entrancing millions of viewers.  His most prominent artistic associate was composer John Cage (1912-1992), with whom he shared his domestic life and with whom he collaborated for decades. He is noted for having continually expanded the boundaries of contemporary dance, including developing experimental methods of making dances using the element of chance, and developing innovative computer software for creating and teaching choreography. At age 90, Merce Cunningham continued to create dance, inspiring generations of other dancers and choreographers.

A Centralia Childhood

Mercier Philip Cunningham was born in Centralia on April 16, 1919. His father, Clifford D. Cunn