During the 11 years that Jean Freebury danced for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, she discovered the value of being specific not just with your movement but also with your rhythm. “Merce had metered phrases, and also unmetered phrases where the rhythm would come out of the movement itself,” she says. Sometimes, there were even […]
Daniel Madoff and Andrea Weber in CRWDSPCR (1993) In our January issue’s History: Lesson Plan, we learn about Merce Cunningham, the creator of chance dance. Cunningham’s CRWDSPCR (1993) was created with DanceForms software, a computer program that allowed him to devise movement. The nonstop, frenetic activity recalls Grand Central Terminal at rush hour. To learn more about […]
Merce Cunningham in Changeling (1957) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston brings a long-lost Merce Cunningham work to life in its new exhibition, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957. Former Cunningham dancer Silas Riener revived Changeling, a 1957 chance dance once thought to be lost, via recently discovered archival footage. For the exhibition, Riener […]