DLAR | Merce Cunningham Dance Company

The iconoclastic Merce Cunningham Dance Company
begins The Legacy Tour universally acknowledged as
the most influential modern dance company of its era.
Merce Cunningham’s embrace of collaborators across
the disciplines of visual arts and sciences essentially documents the transformation of arts, sciences and philosophy from the mid 20th century through the
opening decade of the 21st.


Presenters are encouraged to participate in The Legacy Tour in several ways: Presentation of the company in this last, world wide tour of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company which will offer audiences a final opportunity to see Cunningham masterpieces performed by dancers trained by Mr. Cunningham. Diverse and uniquely structured residency components designed to take a community into a deeper appreciation of Merce Cunningham’s artistic legacy. Worldwide recognition for support in the revival and reconstruction of seminal works from the Cunningham repertory, destined to be seen on the greatest stages of the world and documented for posterity. Each Cunningham engagement is unique in its character. The body of work available for performance coupled with Mr. Cunningham’s adventurous agenda encourages presenters to curate engagements in any number of ways. The company is able to accept engagements that range from a single repertory performance to multi-week, multi-disciplinary immersions in the culture of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the Cunningham technique.

	< Performance Options Events The company creates site-specific experiences for audiences in non-traditional spaces. “Events” draw upon the choreography of existing Cunningham repertoire, reconfigured for performances that are presented in interesting sites. “Events” typically do not require the same level of production support as do performances in a traditional theater venue. Historic Events recreate moments at unusual sites from significant site specific performances of the past, such as “Grand Central Station”, “Ocean at the Quarry”, and “Event at the Tate Modern”. Merce in the Museum are “Events” staged in visual art spaces which are enhanced by the surrounding aesthetic of fine art décor. Repertory Performances The catalog of Cunningham dances covers a career of six decades of choreographic innovation. For The Legacy Tour, the company will make available 12 to 15 pieces of repertory that span the arc of Mr. Cunningham’s earliest creations for his company, up to his last work. Each piece is a unique moment of the company’s history and frequently includes décor by some of the greatest visual artists of the 20th and 21st centuries; Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and live music originally composed by such musical icons as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Erik Satie, Radiohead and Takehisa Kosugi. Repertory performances require a fully-capable proscenium theatre. History Matters Presenters are encouraged to create contextual events to deepen the Cunningham experience for audiences. As part of The Legacy Tour, the company offers a series of one-hour lecture demonstrations entitled “A Decade in a Day”. Drawing upon the full resources of the company in dance, film, lecture, each chapter of “A Decade in a Day” covers 10 years in the history and evolving vision of Merce Cunningham. Presenters can incorporate one chapter per day of this series in a week-long residency of the company to illuminate five decades of Merce Cunningham’s revolutionary art-making.