How important was choreographer Merce Cunningham to dance? The New York Times says he was “among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater.” Well, that figure passed away Sunday night in Manhattan at the age of 90.
Cunningham worked in and around every single aspect of dance over his long career. From a strictly physical stand point, he choreographed and performed in every performance of his own dance troupe, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, until the age of 70 and was still creating dances until this year.
Since the 1950s, when he founded that company, he literally invented dances and collaborated with greats in all works of art, including Andy Warhol, Mikhail Baryshnikov, the band Radiohead and others. Cunningham also pioneered many different technologies in conjunction with the dancing. For example, a 2006 performance gave audience members an iPod loaded with music, which they were then encouraged to shuffle through during the performance. He also was one of the first to use a camera to capture dance in the 1960s and in the 1980s even helped write a computer program to map out dance patterns.
His popularity was worldwide too, creating shows for the New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Boston Ballet just to name a few.
Whether you were a fan of dance or not so much, Cunningham’s influences can be seen in almost every facet of the arts. Though he’s gone, the fruits of his labor will live on forever.
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