Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham, the revolutionary American choreographer, died 26th July at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.

I have been impressed and inspired by his thinking and his works now and then. Here are some words I have seen this time.

"For a dancer, dance is an adventure in time and space. A choreographer is an observer."

Mr. Cunningham often spoke and wrote movingly about the nature of dance and would laugh about its maddening impermanence. “You have to love dancing to stick to it,” he once wrote. “It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”

Original article
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/arts/dance/28cunningham.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

What is dance?
Why do I dance?

These are the questions to be asked and to be explored, forever.


I went to The Place to take a class this morning and unexpectedly the teacher taught Cunningham technique. if I had known, I had not gone to the class but in fact it was nice to revisit Cunningham technique and think and feel what he has done.

What a coincidence.

Chance and Event.

Very important ideas that Cunningham introduced are relevant in everyday life beyond dance, and that's what fascinates me.

Probably, Merce Cunningham has influenced me more than I am aware of.
It is a huge loss for us.