Merce Cunningham is a choreographer, dancer, company director, and .
As a result of his varied education and love for .
dance, he was able to create a type of modern dance that many people have .
accepted. .
.
Mercier Philip Cunningham was born April 16, 1919 in Centralia, .
Washington. His first dance teacher, Madame Maude Barrett showed him her love .
of dance, which inspired him to continue with it, she was so excited about teaching .
dance, it was contagious. He attended Cornish School of Fine and Applied Arts in .
Seattle during 1937. There he met John Cage which he would later choreograph .
dances with. A couple years later, he was a member of the Martha Graham Dance .
Co. until 1945. Merce's first world tour was in 1964. During his lifetime, he also .
studied with George Balanchine at the American School of Ballet. .
The best way to describe Merce Cunningham's dance is, just as modern is .
an alternative to ballet, his dance is an alternative to traditional modern. He was .
once called "a revolutionary, an innovator and perhaps, the antithesis of traditional .
modern dance". Cunningham is also famous for creating a 'chance dance'. It is .
exactly as it sounds, he would choose cards and they would show the steps of the .
dance. He did not want his dances to be predictable or, thought out, not even to .
him. This technique also opened up new ideas, movement, and styles of dance. .
The way he explains it is, "you look at what it is, and you see something else that .
you can do, which you had not thought of before". Since Cunningham was so .
involved with the dance aspect of performance, he did not do much with scenery, .
lighting, or costumes. It was not that he could not, he wanted to leave that out, he .
just thought it was not necessary. He trained his dancers to dance, not deal with .
lighting, scenery, or bulky, uncomfortable costumes. Often, the music for his piece .
would be introduced to the dancers a couple of days before a performance.
