Why is Merce important to me?

Merce Cunningham has changed the way dance is performed and has literally made his own style of dance. I care about Merce because in researching Merce I have learned about this unique way of choreographing. His use of “chance” choreography makes his works completely unpredictable and surprising for every performance. Merce’s interest is in what the body can do and how he can push the boundries of what the body can do.

The public should care about his legacy because MANY dancers have studied with him or have worked with his partner, John Cage. He has completely changed the way audiences view dance and was successful in his purpose performance. Taking emotionality out of dance takes a special kind of dancer to do onstage.

In 2000 Merce made a Legacy Plan. A copy of the plan can be downloaded on his company’s website. In his plan he quoted,

“My idea has always been to explore human physical movement,” said Cunningham. “I attempt to teach students and dancers about my technique, but in a way that allows room for individuality. I would like the Trust to continue doing this, because dancing is a process that never stops, and should not stop if it is to stay alive and fresh.”

Contribution to Dance

Merce Cunningham is truly a one-of-a-kind choreographer. Putting technique aside he created a way of moving which allowed the audience to see pure movement and not movement with emotion, or so were his intentions. Dance was the only idea being presented in Merce’s dances. His dances could range in movement from big and virtuosic to pedestrian based. He liked to push the boundaries of movement: using the computer program DanceForms allowed him to come up with movements that might have seemed (or have actually been) impossible but he was able to get another view on the movement by watching his dancers attempt to do the movement. I can’t think of any other choreographer that used this method to choreograph movements.



Probably his most well-known contribution to the dance world is his use of chance operations in which he would literally leave movement choices up to chance. He also had a very unique way of putting together his works in terms of the relationship between the dance the music and the lighting/stage set-up in that he wouldn’t allow these things to come together until performance time (he adopted this idea from his partner, John Cage).