Merce Cunningham

The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.

Merce Cunningham choreographed “Changing Steps” in 1973. In its original form “Changing Steps” consisted of a solo dance for each member of the company, 3 trios, 2 quartets and 2 quintets, which could be performed in order, and separately or overlapping if space allowed.

Locale was designed to explore the possibilities of moving cameras and moving dancers in a film. Filmed at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Westbeth, New York NY, Jan - Feb 1979. First public screening at City Center Theater, New York NY, 24 February 1980.

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Resurrected through UK-led archival restoration NOVA 78' shows never-before-seen footage of the legendary Nova Convention where William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Zappa, Ginsberg and more collided in an explosion of ideas, art and rebellion.

Paradoxically described by Walter Sorell as "a tender lullaby of love" and by Richard Buckle as "cold and menacing, the courtship of the Macbeths," Night Wandering is a duet reminiscent of snowy landscapes. Cernovitch designed the original costumes: fur tunics that Cunningham wore over trousers, and Brown wore over tights. Continuing with the piece's Nordic theme, the music by Bo Nilsson was characterized by bursts of activity followed by moments of silence, evoking the feeling of traveling through the spacious, and seemingly endless Northern night.

John Cage’s original concept of Ocean, in 1991, was for a dance to be performed in a circular space, with the audience surrounding the dancers, and the musicians (112 of them) surrounding the audience. The last performance was in the Rainbow Quarry in Minnesota, September 2008, at which time the piece was filmed by Charles Atlas.

The quixotic journey of Nam June Paik, one of the most famous Asian artists of the 20th century, who revolutionized the use of technology as an artistic canvas and prophesied both the fascist tendencies and intercultural understanding that would arise from the interconnected metaverse of today's world.

This work was a dance shot for film at the Cunningham studio. Staging for Channels/Inserts was divided among the main studio, the small studio and the office area. Cunningham employed the use of chance operations to decide the order in which each space would be used, whether action would occur in more than one location at a time, and how many dancers would be involved. The piece was divided into sixteen sections, each varying in length. One of the most striking sections began with a series of brief, masterfully executed solos for the men of the company, filmed in the main studio, followed by a shot of the women in the small studio, laughing and chatting amongst themselves, then back to the main studio for a second round of male solos. Music was composed by David Tudor, and costume design was by Charles Atlas.

The iconic Merce Cunningham and the last generation of his dance company is profiled in Alla Kovgan's 3D documentary, through recreations of his landmark works and archival footage of Cunningham, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and more.

A multi-character dance drama. A newlywed pioneer couple, guided by a reverent Revivalist and the wise Pioneer Woman, joyously celebrate their life on the American frontier - dancing, courting, and sharing “Simple Gifts” - only to be shaken by the threat of war before finding solace and communal hope in a final hymn-like gathering.

Sistine Chapel is an audio-visual collage of new footage and samples from Paik’s past videos, which featured many of his friends, collaborators, and public figures. It was Paik’s own way of summarizing his artistic career with video. The film installation consists of fast-paced and overlapping images that completely cover the gallery walls and ceiling—one of the most under-appreciated parts of architecture, according to Paik. With its electronic visuals and booming audio, interspersed with periods of silence, the immersive installation stands in stark contrast to the experience of its namesake.

A portrait of Merce Cunningham.

Merce by Merce by Paik is a two-part tribute to choreographer Merce Cunningham and artist Marcel Duchamp. The first section, “Blue Studio: Five Segments”, is a work of video-dance produced by Merce Cunningham and videomaker Charles Atlas. The second part, produced by Paik and Shigeko Kubota, further queries the relationship between everyday gestures and formal notions of dance.

In his book "1984", George Orwell saw the television of the future as a control instrument in the hands of Big Brother. Right at the start of the much-anticipated Orwellian year, Paik and Co. were keen to demonstrate satellite TV's ability to serve positive ends-- Namely, the intercontinental exchange of culture, combining both highbrow and entertainment elements. A live broadcast shared between WNET TV in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, linked up with broadcasters in Germany and South Korea, reached a worldwide audience of over 10 or even 25 million (including the later repeat transmissions).

A 1987 short film from acclaimed dance choreographer Merce Cunningham.

Blue Studio: Five Segments is a groundbreaking work of videodance by postmodern master Merce Cunningham and his then filmmaker-in-residence, Charles Atlas. In a series of short pieces choreographed and performed specifically for video space, Cunningham is multiplied, overlaid and transported from the studio to a series of unexpected landscapes. Cunningham's gestural dance is manipulated to the accompaniment of a disjunctive audio collage that includes the voices of John Cage and Jasper Johns.

Thirty years after the world premiere of legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham's August Pace, the original cast members gather in a New York City studio for the first time to teach their roles to a younger generation. Their reunion is a grand experiment in group transmission where the older dancers rediscover the work only to let it go and see it anew as observers.

The choreographer Merce Cunningham working with the musician John Cage and the painter Robert Rauschenberg.

This 56-minute documentary on America's most controversial and unique composer manages to cover a great many aspects of Cage's work and thought. His love for mushrooms, his Zen beliefs and use of the I Ching, and basic bio details are all explained intelligently and dynamically. Black Mountain, Buckminster Fuller, Rauschenberg, Duchamp are mentioned. Yoko Ono, John Rockwell, Laurie Anderson, Richard Kostelanetz make appearances. Fascinating performance sequences include Margaret Leng-Tan performing on prepared piano, Merce Cunningham and company, and performances of Credo In Us, Water Music, and Third Construction. Demystifies the man who made music from silence, from all sounds, from life.