History Matters: A Living Archival Presentation
Merce in the 1980s
Merce Cunningham Dance Studio
New York, NY
March 24, 2008
by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter
For New Yorkers, Merce Cunningham Dance Company sightings have become frustratingly rare. In the city that the master choreographer has called home for nearly seven decades and where he creates his work, his troupe has not had a season since October 2006, and none has been announced for anytime in the imminent future. But in the meanwhile, a fascinating series of programs, each focusing on a specific decade, has been offering a chronological overview of Cunningham's work and the company's evolution. Thanks to his longstanding interest in choreographing for the camera, these evenings have included a wealth of film and video excerpts as well as live performances of reconstructed works from each specific decade.
A glance at the full list of 29 works Cunningham created during this amazingly rich and productive decade makes it clear that another two or three such programs would be needed to fully cover the breadth and significance of what he achieved. This evening did not include such memorable works as "Quartet," Pictures," "Duets," "Native Green," "Shards" and "August Pace." But it did offer four film excerpts and four works performed live.
1980 was the year when the company began having annual two-week seasons at City Center that continued throughout the decade, and it was through those that I truly became aware of the wonders of Cunningham's choreography and the vast possibilities it opened up. The company's dancers of that decade were also a particularly memorable group. The first glimpse of any of them in one of this eveing's film segments evoked instant recognition and brought back a flood of memories. The earliest works of the decade still featured the thrilling Karole Armitage and that dymanic tandem team of Chris Komar and Robert Kovich -- elegant, mysterious creatures who perfectly embodied Cunningham's work. Komar and others who carried over from the 1970s -- Louise Burns, Ellen Cornfield, Lise Friedman, Alan Good, Catherine Kerr, Joseph Lennon, Rob Remley -- anchored the repertory in the first half of the decade, but each new member of the company added fascinating new shadings and the roster only grew richer and stronger. The newly-added women were a particularly luminous group; between 1982 and 1985, Helen Barrow, Patiricia Lent, Victoria Finlayson and Kristy Santimyer joined, and each made an immediate and distinctive impact. The male roster was enriched with the arrival of Neil Greenberg, Robert Swinston and David Kulick.
And there many of them were, as full of crisp precision and surprising torque as ever, in the first flm excerpt, from "Channels/Inserts" (1981). Filmmaker Eliot Caplan, who assisted director Charles Atlas on this project (as well as the 1983 "Coast Zone" film), had just remarked that the choreography for Channels/Inserts" - which in the film is divided between the Cunningham company's main studio, a smaller one and the corridors between, had all been created in the main studio in which we now sat. And as the separate clusters of dancers advanced and retreated, for a moment their figures "danced" on that floor once again, as the lingering daylight through the windows created a reflection of their forms. Both in those faint reflections and in the vivid onscreen images, we could once again marvel at Lennon's almost fiendish prancing, Armitage's beautifully erect carriage and air of commanding hauteur, Burns' amiable warmth, Kerr's implacable serenity.
Caplan, who recalled many technical details of the 1980s various film and video projects, was part of the evening's panel, along with Cunningham, Lent (who performed from 1984 to 1993) and the company's invaluable archivist and chronicler, David Vaughan. For "Coast Zone," first created as a filmdance and then transferred to the stage, Cunningham and Atlas left the studio and had the expanse of the Synod House of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine available. Caplan recalled they were able to place the cameras on cranes to achieve the shots Cunningham wanted, and that "we spent most of our time rehearsing and very little time shooting." The excerpt shown revealed the inventive angles and uncluttered beauty of the piece, highlighted by Barrow's sculptural lucidity, Kerr's intense calm as she unfurled her elongated limbs, and Lennon's contrasting frenetic energy as he shot through space in huge leaps.
After that film, Caplan became Cunningham's primary collaborator for works on camera, and excerpts from two of his video dances were shown. "Points in Space" (1986) benefited from the large dimensions and flexibility of the BBC TV Centre in London, which allowed for a series of 80-foot-wide drops by set designer William Anastasi. The duet and two contrasting trios -- with then fluidly gave way to a circle for the six dancers -- shown revealed the sophisticated and unexpected camera angles, and whetted the appetite for the complete work. (Fortunately, the complete videodance, acocmpanied by the half-hour BBC documentary with which it oriinally aired, is available on DVD from the Cunningham Foundation.) "Changing Steps," the other Caplan video dance, on the program, was a very different experience, with dancers appearing here and there, often abruptly amid the scenic outdoor settings at Utah's Sundance Institute.
Current members of the company performed three excerpts. Two duets from "Trails" (1982) were accompanied by John Cage's score that included the sounds of traffic along Sixth Avenue. Lisa Boudreau graciously accepted careful, respectful support from Brandon Collwes as they remained very contained before breaking apart and bounding through crisp jumps, while Andrea Weber and Daniel Madoff were frisky, devouring space vigorously.
Cunningham, whose soft-spoken comments were brief but pointed and pithy throughout the program -- explaining practical aspects of, and specific tasks behind, the works -- explained that "Doubles" (1984) began as two separate dances, each for half of the company. "I wanted to have two activities going on, with no relation to each other except accidentally," he said. Julie Cunningham, Jennifer Goggans, Daniel Madoff and Rashaun Mitchell performed an excerpt from the work with a deft alacrity that belied its internal complexities. Lent recalled how much fun it was to dance in "Fielding Sixes," (1980) set to Cage's modifications of rcordings by traditional Irish musicians Paddy Grackin and Matt Molloy, and the delightful excerpt, full of brisk and surprising developments, that seven company members offered to close the evening allowed one to see why.
That work's music incorporated material from Cage's major project involving Irish music, "Roaratorio," to which Cunningham choreographed a dance in 1983. The four impressive dancers of the Repertory Understudy Group (RUG) performed two duets as a sampling from this hour-long piece. As with all eight works seen, one was intrigued as to the possibilities of full revivals. Meanwhile, much material form these (and other) earlier works is included in the many Events the company performs.
It was early in the following decade that Cunningham began using LifeForms and other computer programs into his choreographic process, which led to increasing division between the activity of the upper and lower halves of the body and more intricate, complex movement configurations. Much of the 1980s works, seen here in collected -- if abbreviated -- form, have a distinctive lucidity and spaciousness. Limbs unfurl and cantilever with mesmerizing beauty, the shapes and positions create unexpected planes in space, and somehow even the most surprising and abrupt development emerges from its own inner logic. Though not seen in any of the filmed excerpts shown, Cunningham himself performed throughout the decade. Though in his 60s, he was an amazingly agile and of course powerfully resonant performer, as anyone who saw "Quartet" or "Pictures" will recall. He also indulged his slyly comic persona in such works as "Gallopade" and the wonderfully engaging, quasi-nostalgic "Grange Eve." Much as one could linger on the brilliance and inventiveness of his 1980s works, the series is bound to move onward.
Special credit is due to the seemingly tireless Robert Swinston, the one current company member who was also there in the 1980s, who developed this illuminating series. (In addition to being Cuningham's assistant he directs the RUG, which was also performed with distinction in a noontime showcase at the 92nd Street Y. The very thorough printed program contains much valuable information, such as indications of whose original role each current performer is dancing. And certainly the spirit of John Cage, who composed five of the eveing's scores, all suggesting both layered complexity and well as amiable wit and whose contributions to the works were often discussed by the panelists, was much present throughout the evening.
Photos:
Top: Rob Remley and company members in "Channels'Inserts" (photo by Johan Elbers)
Bottom: Merce Cunningham and Eliot Caplan during the 1986 videotaping of "Points in Space" (photo by Robert Hill)