Merce Cunningham Dance Company Company Has Forged a Distinctive Style, Reflecting and Mark Lancaster from 1980 Through 1984
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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS Friday, March 26, 2010, 8pm ERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY whose famous “Combines” reflect the approach Saturday, March 27, 2010, 8pm M(MCDC) has had a profound impact on he used to create décor for a number of MCDC’s Zellerbach Hall American art and the avant-garde since its found- early works, served as the Company’s resident de- ing in 1953. Guided by Merce Cunningham’s radi- signer from 1954 through 1964. Jasper Johns fol- cal approach to space, time and technology, the lowed as Artistic Advisor from 1967 until 1980, Merce Cunningham Dance Company Company has forged a distinctive style, reflecting and Mark Lancaster from 1980 through 1984. The The Legacy Tour Mr. Cunningham’s technique and illuminating last Artistic Advisors to be appointed were William the near limitless possibility for human movement. Anastasi and Dove Bradshaw in 1984. Other artists Dancers For more than 50 years, MCDC’s collaborations who have collaborated with MCDC include Tacita Brandon Collwes, Dylan Crossman, Julie Cunningham, Emma Desjardins, with groundbreaking artists from all disciplines Dean, Rei Kawakubo, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Jennifer Goggans, John Hinrichs, Daniel Madoff, Rashaun Mitchell, Marcie Munnerlyn, have redefined the way audiences experience the Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Frank Stella, Benedetta Krista Nelson, Silas Riener, Jamie Scott, Robert Swinston, Melissa Toogood, Andrea Weber visual and performing arts. Tagliabue and Andy Warhol. MCDC was formed at Black Mountain MCDC has been featured extensively in film Choreography Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) College, and included dancers Carolyn Brown, and video choreographed by Mr. Cunningham, Founding Music Director John Cage (1912–1992) Viola Farber, Paul Taylor and Remy Charlip, first with Charles Atlas and later in collabora- Music Director Takehisa Kosugi and musicians John Cage and David Tudor. In tion with Elliot Caplan. With support from The Director of Choreography Robert Swinston its early years, the Company famously toured Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mr. Atlas con- Executive Director Trevor Carlson in a Volkswagen bus driven by Mr. Cage with tinues to collaborate with MCDC, filming Views just enough room for six dancers, the two musi- on Camera and Views on Video in 2004–2005 cians and a stage manager, who was often Robert and, in fall 2008, filming the Company perform- PROGRAM Rauschenberg. MCDC’s first international tour in ing Mr. Cunningham’s epic work Ocean (1994) in 2 1964—which included performances in Western Minnesota’s Rainbow Quarry, 100 feet below the Nearly 90 and Eastern Europe, India, Thailand and Japan— surface of the earth, accompanied by the 150-mem- (2009) marked a turning point for the Company and ber St. Cloud Orchestra. Mr. Atlas’s film of Split Choreography Merce Cunningham initiated a constant stream of national and inter- Sides, which premiered on the 50th anniversary of Music John Paul Jones, Takehisa Kosugi national engagements. In the years since, MCDC MCDC at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Costumes Anna Finke has inspired artists and audiences with innovative in 2003, was released on DVD by ARTPIX. Lighting Christine Shallenberg performances, serving as an ambassador for con- The Company premiered Mr. Cunningham’s Musicians John King, Takehisa Kosugi temporary American culture around the world. final work, Nearly Ninety, at BAM on April 16, In addition to its influence in the world of 2009, the actual date of his 90th birthday. In Dancers dance, MCDC has cultivated a body of new mu- May 2009, it completed a two-year residency Brandon Collwes, Dylan Crossman, Julie Cunningham, Emma Desjardins, sic, commissioning more work from contempo- with Dia:Beacon, performing a series of “Events,” Jennifer Goggans, John Hinrichs, Daniel Madoff, Rashaun Mitchell, Marcie Munnerlyn, rary composers than any other dance company. Mr. Cunningham’s site-specific choreographic Silas Riener, Jamie Scott, Melissa Toogood, Andrea Weber Its repertory includes works by musicians rang- collages, in the galleries of Richard Serra, Dan 2 ing from Mr. Cage and Christian Wolff to Gavin Flavin and Sol LeWitt, among others. Other recent Nearly 90 is a restaged version of Merce Cunningham’s final work,Nearly Ninety. First performed Bryars and Radiohead. Mr. Cage’s association milestones include the 2007 premiere of XOVER, at Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 19, 2009, in celebration of Mr. Cunningham’s 90th with the Company as Musical Advisor since its in- Mr. Cunningham’s final collaboration with birthday, Nearly Ninety was co-commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music, barbicanbite10 ception continued until his death in 1992, when Mr. Rauschenberg. The Company has also main- (London), Comunidad de Madrid-Teatros Canal and Festival Internacional Madrid en Danza, he was succeeded by David Tudor. Since 1995, tained an active international touring schedule, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris and Festival d’Automne à Paris. MCDC has been under the musical direction of with regular performances at such venues as Paris’s Takehisa Kosugi. Théâtre de la Ville and the Barbican in London, MCDC has also collaborated with an array and is currently embarked upon a final, celebratory These performances are funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Ford Foundation, of visual artists and designers. Mr. Rauschenberg, two-year world tour. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation. These performances are also made possible, in part, by the Centennial Campaign’s Creative Venture Fund through a gift from The Bernard Osher Foundation. Cal Performances’ 2009–2010 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 22 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 23 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS DIRECTORS Mr. Cunningham’s lifelong passion for explo- Birds, presented at the James Joyce/John Cage mixed-media performance works and performing ration and innovation made him a leader in apply- Festival in Zürich in 1991. He was the author of with Nam June Paik and other Fluxus members. Merce Cunningham (Artistic ing new technologies to the arts. He began inves- many books, among them Silence (1961), A Year In 1967, he co-founded the Taj Mahal Travelers Director) was a leader of tigating dance on film in the 1970s, and choreo- from Monday (1968), M (1973), Empty Words (1979) in Tokyo, a collective improvisational group. As the American avant-garde graphed using the computer program DanceForms and X (1983), all published by Wesleyan University a composer he participated in Expo ’70 in Osaka. throughout his 70-year career during the latter part of his career. He explored Press. I–VI (the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures de- He has been a composer/performer with MCDC and is considered one of the motion capture technology to create décor for livered at Harvard University in 1988–1989) was since 1977 and was appointed Music Director of most important choreogra- BIPED (1999), and his interest in new media led to published by Harvard University Press in 1990. the Company in 1995. He received grants from the phers of our time. Through the creation of the pioneering web series Mondays Mr. Cage’s music is published by the Henmar JDR 3rd Fund in 1966 and 1977, a DAAD fellow- much of his life, he was also with Merce. Press of C. F. Peters Corporation and has been re- ship grant to reside in Berlin in 1981, and the John one of the greatest American Mark Seliger An active choreographer and mentor to corded on many labels. He died in New York City Cage Award for Music from the Foundation for dancers. With an artistic career distinguished by the arts world until his death at the age of 90, on August 12, 1992. Contemporary Performance Arts in 1994. He has constant innovation, Mr. Cunningham expanded Mr. Cunningham earned some of the highest performed in many international festivals, includ- the frontiers not only of dance, but also of contem- honors bestowed in the arts. Among his many Robert Swinston (Director ing the Festival d’Automne à Paris, the Almeida porary visual and performing arts. His collabora- awards are the National Medal of Arts (1990) of Choreography) was born in International Festival of Contemporary Music in tions with artistic innovators from every creative and the MacArthur Fellowship (1985). He also Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and London, and the Sound and Nature in Krems, discipline have yielded an unparalleled body of received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2009, attended Middlebury College Austria. His sound installations have been pre- American dance, music and visual art. Japan’s Præmium Imperiale in 2005, the British and The Juilliard School, where sented in various exhibitions, including Für Augen Of all his collaborations, Mr. Cunningham’s Laurence Olivier Award in 1985, and was named he received a BFA in dance. und Öhren, Berlin; Ecouter par les yeux, Paris; and work with John Cage, his life partner from the Officier of the Legion d’Honneur in France in He danced with the Martha Kunst als Grenzbeschreitung: John Cage und die 1940s until Mr. Cage’s death in 1992, had the 2004. Mr. Cunningham’s life and artistic vision Graham Apprentice Group, the Moderne, Munich. greatest influence on his practice. Together, have been the subject of four books and three ma- José Limón Dance Company and with Kazuko Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Cage proposed a num- jor exhibitions, and his works have been presented Hirabayashi Dance Theatre. He joined MCDC in Trevor Carlson (Executive Director) assumed ber of radical innovations. The most famous and by groups including the Ballet of the Paris Opéra, August 1980. In July 1992, he became Assistant to the position of Executive Director of CDF in controversial of these concerned the relationship New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, the Choreographer.