MERCE CUNNINGHAM: NEW YORK ICON

The passing of Merce Cunningham within a month of the demise of Pina Bausch is a great blow for dance. Around Westbeth, straightbacked in his wheelchair with a green blanket draped around him in a grundgy elevator, the great choreographer seemed lighter than those who have two feet, yet slouch. Cunningham broke open the bounds of movement not only for those in dance, but for all who work in theater, movement and dance. What Cunningham innovated was a radical break with the very idea of narrative and characterization in dance. His choreography demanded a new way of seeing bodies move in space, a kinetic vernacular for the Twentieth century. Through Cunningham's work, dance became a barometer for our times, a proposal for what is to become, not a citation of the past. Cunningham opened up the spaces of New York City as a tool for breaking up the expectations of movement, and brought the everyday movement of the street, and Judson Church, into the dance studio in ways that were startling, disconcerting, even heretical to traditions of classical form. In his collaborations with John Cage, and the Black Mountain College group, Cunningham offered a model for creating new work, fresh modalities, across disciplines and art forms that forever changed the way we produce work now. Merce Cunningham was the quintessential New Yorker, irreverent, passionate, and till the end, immersed in a creative life.