If you’re interested in contemporary dance theatre then you’ll be excited to learn of a series of events and performances celebrating the legacy of choreographer Merce Cunningham at the Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS.
As part of a wider international celebration marking the centenary of his birth the Barbican will be presenting the following season:
1. The world premiere of NIGHT OF 100 SOLOS in which 25 dancers perform what’s described as “a unique collection of 100 solos choreographed by Cunningham over the course of his career, with live music and bespoke set design” Tuesday 16 April 2019, 7.45pm
2. NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON is to be “a solo performance by Trevor Carlson, former Executive Director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and reflects on the years he spent as companion and close friend to the choreographer, offering a rare insight into the final days of a master” Thursday 4–Saturday 6 April, Silk Street Theatre
3. And finally Maia Wechsler’s documentary film IF THE DANCER DANCES which “shows Stephen Petronio Company and former members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company rehearsing Cunningham’s Rain Forest (1968.)” Saturday 6 April 2019
If you’re new to Cunningham’s work here’s how the Barbican’s press release describes his life and impact.
“Merce Cunningham (16 April 1919–26 July 2009) is widely considered to be one of the most important choreographers of all time. His approach to performance was groundbreaking in its ideological simplicity and physical complexity: he applied the idea that “a thing is just that thing” to choreography, embracing the notion that “if the dancer dances, everything is there.”
Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington, and attended the Cornish School in Seattle. There, he was introduced to the work of Martha Graham (he would later have a six-year tenure as a soloist with her company) and met John Cage, who would become the greatest influence on his practice, his closest collaborator, and his life partner until Cage’s death in 1992. In 1948, Cunningham and Cage began a relationship with the famed experimental institution Black Mountain College, where Cunningham first formed a dance company to explore his convention-breaking ideas. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company (originally called Merce Cunningham and Dance Company) would remain in continuous operation until 2011, with Cunningham as Artistic Director until his death in 2009. Over the course of his career, Cunningham choreographed 180 dances and over 700 Events.
Across his 70-year career, Cunningham proposed a number of radical innovations to how movement and choreography are understood, and sought to find new ways to integrate technology and dance. With long-term collaborations with artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Charles Atlas, and Elliot Caplan, Cunningham’s sphere of influence also extended deep into the visual arts world.
Cunningham earned some of the highest honours bestowed in the arts, and his dances have been performed by groups including the Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, White Oak Dance Project, the Lyon Opera Ballet, Ballett am Rhein, and London’s Rambert”.
Full casting has been announced for the transfer of classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, a revival which is moving from the little Menier Theatre near London Bridge to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End.