Merce Cunningham, a dance pioneer and influential choreographer who studied at Black Mountain College, died on Sunday. Here’s part of his obituary from EdgeBoston.com:
Merce Cunningham, long considered one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century, died at age 90 on Sunday, July 26, in New York City, where he lived most of his life.
With his partner in life and artistic collaborator John Cage, he created some of the most memorable dance pieces of his time. The New York Times reports that he has long been considered “the world’s greatest choreographer.”
Cunningham has long been associated with the Downtown New York avant-garde arts scene. He rejected the formal classicism embodied by the great ballet choreographer George Balanchine; but he also attempted more of an integration of classical ballet than the other end of the pole, the modern dance giant Martha Graham.
Cunningham followed others in integrating various forms of dance–notably, as the Times points out, Jerome Robbins, and Paul Taylor. But Cunningham also brought something to the table that neither of them did, even at their best: a mischievous sense of fun that was also subversive.
Cunningham met Cage soon after he moved to New York from Washington State, where he was discovered by Graham. His first solo concert, in 1944, was a collaboration with Cage, and the two remained close both personally and in their work, until Cage’s death in 1992.
Cunningham formed his own dance company in 1953, after a residence at the Black Mountain College in Asheville, N.C. The company quickly became known for innovation and established itself as an important fixture in the ferment of the post-war New York dance scene.
The artist Rober Rauschenberg worked as the company’s stage manager, and collaboration with visual artists like Ricahrd Serra, Jasper Johns and Sol LeWitt continued that tradition well into the 2000s. In 2007, Cunningham and Rauschenberg premiered a new piece.