Merce Cunningham proves why he is a legend

Will be his company’s only Kentucky performance

By Emily Wilson CONTRIBUTING DANCE CRITIC

LOUISVILLE — Multiple focal points, multiple art forms, but only one Louisville performance of the legendary Merce Cunningham Dance Co.

Friday evening’s performance at the Kentucky Center’s Brown Theater included three Cunningham pieces set to original music and incorporated both visual and digital arts. True to Cunningham style, each of the three works featured organic movement with multiple centers. A front-runner in the field of integrated art forms, Cunningham collaborates with musicians, visual artists and lighting designers, setting his work apart from many others in the world of dance.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Co.’s visit to Louisville was no exception. Attention was given to every aspect of the performance: choreography, music, costume design, décor and lighting. The dancers displayed impeccably strong technique, truly honoring the work of an American dance master. Cunningham choreography relies not on the timing of the music, but on the instinctive timing of the dancers. Friday’s dancers rose to this challenge, fulfilling their obligation to Cunningham and his work.

Cunningham, who began his dance career in tap and ballroom, went on to perform as a soloist in the Martha Graham Co. Though he saw Graham as an amazing mover, his artistic vision reached beyond her repertoire, and in 1953, he formed his own company. Although he is known for collaborations with various artists, his most enduring relationship was with avant-garde musician John Cage, who died in 1992. It was a Cunningham-Cage collaboration that opened Friday’s performance. Suite for Five was, in true Cunningham form, movement for movement’s sake. Both Cunningham and Cage believed that dance and music existed independently. While their music and dance are performed at the same time, they are not connected to each other with a clear relationship. In Suite for Five, the solo piano gave a sense of disconnect, while the five dancers created multiple visual points of interest on the stage. For eyeSpace, which was commissioned by the National Dance Project and created in 2006, Cunningham collaborated with several composers. Supporting the organic movement were various sound items including water, strings, a piano and other percussion instruments. In this piece, the dancers occasionally moved in unison, a contrast to the first dance. Because such unified movement was so unusual, it was all the more obvious when one of the dancers was a breath behind the others. Fortunately, this was the only obvious flaw in the evening’s performance.

The final piece, BIPED, featured music by Gavin Bryars and digital media projections on a scrim. The projections, which utilized animation technology, captured the motion of moving bodies. Real live motion overlapped by this computer-generated motion created a sense of continuous movement flow. The simple but profound geometric lighting design added visual depth. Dancers entered and exited from various parts of the stage, demonstrating Cunningham’s view of the equality of all parts of the stage. Although much of Cunningham’s movement is upright, in BIPED it seems less of an aesthetic choice and more a celebration of our two-legged human-ness.

Through the enchantment of sight and sound, the Kentucky audience seemed to almost forget its own human-ness. Like multi-focal Zen meditation, the organic movement and continuity of Cunningham’s work has the power to transport its audience to another place. For this, the audience at the Brown Theater was truly grateful, offering sincere and sustained applause for this world-class company. Though his work displays many centers and points of focus, seeing it performed on Friday night reminds us that there is indeed only one Merce Cunningham.