Artsource
DANCE MUSIC ®
The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts
TRANSFORMATION
ENDURING VALUES
ARTISTIC PROCESSES
TRADITIONAL CLASSICAL
1. CREATING (Cr)
CONTEMPORARY
2. PERFORMING, PRESENTING, PRODUCING (Pr)
EXPERIMENTAL
3. RESPONDING (Re)
MULTI-MEDIA
4. CONNECTING (Cn)
THE POWER OF NATURE
FREEDOM & OPPRESSION
THE HUMAN FAMILY
Title of Work:
About the Artwork:
CRWDSPCR (Crowdspacer)
CRWDSPCR (Crowdspacer) is a result of the
Creator:
intriguing
Choreographer: Merce Cunningham (1919 - 2009)
Cunningham’s work with the Life Forms computer
Performed by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company
program. Cunningham was an inveterate explorer of
choreographic
process
of
Merce
new technology, and he became interested in “how
Background Information:
the computer opens the eye to detail - the way a
While in his teens, Merce Cunningham did exhibition
photograph does.” CRWDSPCR follows the dancers
ballroom dancing in local farmers’ lodges. He received his
as they physically try out and adapt movement
first formal dance and theater training at the Cornish School
sequences derived from Cunningham’s computerized
in Seattle, where he met musician and composer John Cage.
images to discover ways to make those movements
In 1939, dancer/choreographer Martha Graham invited
“work” with real bodies in real time.
Merce to work with her in New York., and for the next six years, he was a soloist in her company as well as a member of
Creative Process of the Artist or Culture:
the faculty of the School of American Ballet directed by
Cunningham used the new Life Forms computer
George Balanchine. In 1944, Merce presented the first of
figures to originate movement possibilities for
many annual New York solo concerts with John Cage, which
CRWDSPCR. Then he worked with the dancers to
continued until the formation of the Merce Cunningham
replicate, coordinate and perform the movement for
Dance Company in 1953. A world tour in June 1964
the piece. The music, blues 99, was composed by
created a turning point in the company’s history; audiences
John King. It is produced through the transformation
in Europe and Asia recognized the importance of its work.
of sounds made by a steel Dobro slide guitar.
From the start, in their approaches to choreographing dance
Cunningham gave King only three pieces of
and composing music, Cunningham and Cage agreed on the
information about the dance: its length, its title, and
mutual independence of dance and music. They would agree
the fact that there would be groups of dancers on
on a certain time structure -- for example, 3 parts of 1 to 2
the stage. This suggested to King a picture of urban
1/2 minutes each -- and then go off independently to
life.
compose the dance and the music. Cunningham and Cage’s artistic association endured for more than fifty years until John Cage’s death in 1992. Cunningham is still celebrated as an innovative artist, who choreographed more than 185 pieces for his company during his life.
New York
“Dancing for me is movement in time and space. Its possibilities are bound only by our imaginations and our two legs.” Merce Cunningham