Merce cunningham biography timeline example

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 Tudor, Brian Eno, and graphic artists Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and Jasper Johns; and fashion 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, 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, Kimberly Bartosik, Flo Ankah, Jan Van Dyke, Jonah Bokaer, and Alice Reyes.

In 2009, the Cunningham Dance Foundation announced the Legacy Plan, a plan for the continuation of Cunningham's work and the celebration and preservation of his artistic legacy.

Cunningham earned some of the highest honours bestowed in the arts, including the National Medal of Arts and the MacArthur Fellowship. He also received Japan's Praemium Imperiale and a British Laurence Olivier Award, and was named Officier of the Légion d'honneur in France.

Cunningham's life and artistic vision have been the subject of numerous books, films, and exhibitions, and his works have been presented by groups including the Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, White Oak Dance Project, and London's Rambert Dance Company.

Biography

Merce Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington, in 1919, the second of three sons. Both of his brothers followed their father, Clifford D. Cunningham

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. Cunningham (1883-1963), was a lawyer. Cunningham remembered many years later asking his father why he chose to work in a small town. His father replied that he wanted to practice all kinds of law. The case for which C. D. Cunningham is best remembered is the trial of members of the radical labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World, for their participation in an event known as the Centralia Massacre. Cunningham was special prosecutor in the trial. Merce Cunningham was a baby when these events occurred.

His mother, Mayme Joach Cunningham (1887-1976), whom Cunningham later described as possessing “an enormous energy and quite independent spirit” (Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance) periodically departed Centralia to travel the world, leaving her husband content to garden and mind his small-town legal practice. Cunningham grew up in Centralia, nurtured within that small community, and increasingly celebrated within it as he grew and shone on first the local, and then much lar

Birth of Merce Cunningham

Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington
Merce Cunningham starts to study dance at the age of 12
Cunningham starts school at the Cornish School of Fine arts where he changed his major from theater to dance. This was also where he met his life partner and, later, business partner, John Cage
Inspired by Martha Graham whose company he was a part of, Cunningham began to start choreographing his own works.
Cunningham first began to debut his works, such as 'A Root of Unfocus'
Cunningham leaves Martha Graham's dance company to work on his own stuff with partner, John Cage
Utilized his newly developed techniques called “choreography by chance” in his dance 'Sixteen Dances for Soloist and Company of Three'. Choreography by chance was a technique that used isolated movements are assigned by random chance in an assigned sequence. An example of this choreography would be the act of flipping a coin.
Choreographed by Cunningham, it was the first modern dance to ever be choreographed to an electronic score.
Cunningham started his own company, employing many people including his partner, John Cage.
Cunningham and his company go on their first international tour
Cunningham abandons his company's repertory to start working more with film and videotape for choreography
'Locale' was the first film that Cunningham created for his choreography
Arthritis takes Cunningham away from the dance stage. However, he begins to experiment with animated computer programming for choreography
John Cage dies in New York, New York
Merce Cunningham is awarded the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperial prize for theater/film. This is one of the arts' most prestigious awards
Cunningham dies in New York, New York

Summary of Merce Cunningham

One of the most innovative artists of the 20 century, Merce Cunningham employed a range of tactics to create his sometimes difficult dance productions that confounded and delighted viewers. Often working with his life partner, avant-garde composer John Cage, Cunningham banished dance's traditional reliance on emotive narrative and instead infused it with a sense of the everyday and ordinary. Embracing chance and allowing dancers more autonomy and choice, Cunningham's dances are grounded in the random and unexpected but can also reveal deep meditations on human relationships and how we exist in the world at large.

Working on the edges of Happenings, Fluxus, and Neo-Dada, Cunningham's collaborative practice led him to work with some of the most innovative musicians, including Pauline Oliveros, David Tudor, and LaMont Young, as well as artists such as Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Bruce Nauman, and Robert Morris. Inhabiting this intermedia landscape for so many decades, Cunningham's influence can be felt in many corners of the art world.

Accomplishments

Mostly defying categories, Cunningham was a central participant in the group of Neo-Dadaist artists that included John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. Taking cues from Marcel Duchamp, these artists used found objects to critique high and traditional notions of art and often parodied the self-expression of the Abstract Expressionists. Additionally, Cunningham incorporated the performative aspects of Happenings and Fluxus to push the boundaries of dance.
Perhaps inspired by John Cage, Cunningham largely relied on chance to choreograph his dances. Using playing cards, tossing coins, or sometimes consulting the I-Ching, an ancient Chinese text used for divination, Cunningham would order and arrange movements, sometimes employing ordinary actions, into a dance. According to Cunningham, chance freed his imagination and let him work outside of cult

When did merce cunningham start dancing

Merce cunningham works

Merce cunningham biography timeline example