Dear readers, I was invited by Art Forum to be one of three dance writers providing their responses to this extraordinary celebratory Event, which occurred exactly one hundred years after Merce Cunningham's birth in three cities: New York, San Francisco, and London. Seventy-five dancers participated and a host of former Cunningham company members taught material from his dancer. Here is the … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2019
Tracing Bloodlines
The Stephen Petronio Company at Skirball American choreographers in the modern dance world have tended to disavow their heritages as they made new discoveries. In the 1930s, Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey labored to find their own styles and disavowed any influence that might have trickled down from Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, in whose companies they had danced. Did Merce Cunningham and … [Read more...]
Martha Graham and Beyond
The Martha Graham Dance Company has titled its season at the Joyce Theater “The Eve Project.” What did artistic director Janet Eilber mean by this? Forget about Eve being conned by the biblical serpent; she tempted Adam to bite into that apple and, according to the bevy of gospel writers, more or less invented sex and paid the price. Instead, every one of the eleven works being performed between … [Read more...]