Merce Cunningham, Influential Choreographer, Dies

Submitted by Eternity on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 18:51.

New York Times - Merce Cunningham, the visionary American choreographer who helped transform dance in the 20th-century into a major art and a major form of theater, died Sunday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 90. His death was announced by the Cunningham Dance Foundation.

Mr. Cunningham ranks with Isadora Duncan, Serge Diaghilev, Martha Graham and George Balanchine in making people rethink the essence of dance and choreography.  Read more.

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movement was his media

Submitted by Susan Miller on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 21:23.

Merce changed dance forever. Before postmodernism but spawning it with his events and happenings, he launched a generation of inventiveness. His own inventiveness and wackiness and sense of humor and intense seeing and exhibiting will be missed.

If you haven't had the chance to see his work, here is a nice little feature (there are increasingly more online in the past few months)

 

Learn more Illuminating Merce Cunningham's Spirited Choreography By MINDY ALOFF