There was no conflict, no resolution, no climax, and no romance. He was primarily concerned with the moment itself. Simply put, the movement was important for what is was. The standards of choreography were that every movement has a meaning, but Cunningham didn't subscribe to this idea. Ideas of existentialism can be seen in his work. Existentialist Jean Paul Sartre believed that existence precedes essence. This what Cunningham's work exudes.
He was concerned with the unpredictability of life and related this to his choreographic process. Cunningham comes up with phrases of movement and decides on the arrangement by chance, like flipping a coin. He said, "Chance can reveal to a choreographer a way of combining movements that the rational, conscious mind might not otherwise have thought of on its own" (Ballet and Modern Dance 165).
Merce used the stage space as on open field. There was balanced importance to the whole stage, the middle was just as important as the back corner. His choreography contained things happening simultaneously in different sections of the stage. This allowed the viewer's eye to wander around the stage. .
Cunningham's dances were not a theatrical production like the dances of Martha Graham. He felt that the dance, the music and the set all existed as separate entities. His work was based on human rhythms instead of musical rhythms. The steps were not constructed to fit music. Traditionally dances were created to a score of music. Martha Graham had composers write music specifically for her dance. Cunningham did neither; he commissioned a composer to write a piece of music that had nothing to do with the dance. The same idea was used in set design, he had no control or authority over what the music or set would look like. He believed that each artist should have free creative license. Therefore, his dancers rehearsed in silence or to him counting. Many times, the first performance was the first time the performers ever heard the music.
