5 replies to this topic

[sandik]

Dance/USA has a short report about the recently released case study of the Merce Cunningham company and its transformation into the Cunningham Trust after the choreographer's death.  The report is here, and there's a link to the full (almost 50 page) case study.

[kfw]

Thanks, Sandik. The Trust has given Cunningham fans plenty to feast on since the company disbanded. The Park Armory Events were thought to have been the last chance to see his work danced by his own dancers, but many ex-company members turned up in Philadelphia for mini-Events in conjunction with the Dancing Around the Bride exhibition that ran late last year through the MLK holiday this January. I’m happy to say I saw a couple of days’ worth.

There is also the wonderful I-Pad app, Merce Cunningham: 65 Years, David Vaughan’s update of his coffee table book on the company’s first 50 years.There is the 3-CD, Park Armory Event compilation - actually 2 CDs of Park Armory performances and one of repertory excerpts (mostly as performed on the Legacy Tour). And there is a 56-minute documentary, not yet commercially released I don’t think, entitled Merce Cunningham, legacy of dance, which apparently concerns the development of the Legacy Plan and the formation of time capsules of individual dances. A small portion of that digital treasure hoard is available to the public on the Merce Capsules website.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

KFW - Many thanks for the heads up re the Armory Event DVD! I hadn't realized that one was in the works. I went to the very last event on New Year's Eve, and it was both a beautiful and heartbreaking last look at a remarkable company. Robert Swinston did  a phenomenal job assembling extracts from 50 years of Cunningham rep into a coherent whole and, even more remarkably, spreading it out over three stages simultaneously in such a way that no matter where you stood there were marvels to see.

And the iPad app is really terrific. We need more dance apps like that.

Also, there's a lengthy and interesting article about the Cunningham Trust and the whole vexed issue of choreographic preservation by Lizzie Feidelson in the latest issue of n+1. It's not available online yet, but most n+1 articles end up in their online archive eventually. (Feidelson is the granddaughter of Marianne Preger, one of Cunningham's first dancers, and has herself worked with the Trust.)

[kfw]

Thanks, Kathleen, I'll check back for that story. I'm jealous of anybody who saw one of the final performances!

[Kathleen O'Connell]

Kathleen O, on 12 May 2013 - 01:27 PM, said:

Also, there's a lengthy and interesting article about the Cunningham Trust and the whole vexed issue of choreographic preservation by Lizzie Feidelson in the latest issue of n+1. It's not available online yet, but most n+1 articles end up in their online archive eventually. (Feidelson is the granddaughter of Marianne Preger, one of Cunningham's first dancers, and has herself worked with the Trust.)

Feidelson's n+1 article is now available online: you can read it in full here.

[sandik]

Oh thank you -- I've been busy with other stuff, and lost track of this...