Merce Cunningham: the other way around

Silva, Ana Luisa Valdeira da; Palmeirim, Madalena Manzoni

http://hdl.handle.net/10451/7892

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Authors

Silva, Ana Luisa Valdeira da

Palmeirim, Madalena Manzoni

Abstract(s)

Time killed Merce. Merce’s pace fitted time. Working with a stopwatch to control the duration of gestures and movements in space, Cunningham changed the traditional way of choreography. The negation of narrative, expressiveness, synchrony, single perspective, logic or unit was a defiance to all preceding concepts in dance. This was also a way of freeing dance from the restricted boundaries and limitations of movement in which dance had been involved. Breaking all the patterns of physical co-ordination, he arrived at an autonomous form that involved infinite variations of actions. Cunningham let gestures be themselves.