"... beautiful, fluid, and masterful"

July 30, 2003 performance reviewed by Connell McGrath

"Presented without intermission, this EVENT consists of complete dances, excerpts of dances from the repertory, and often new sequences arranged for the particular performance and place, with the possibility of several separate activities happening at the same time—to allow not so much an evening of dances as the experience of dance." - Merce Cunningham, Program Notes.

[see also: dance review and report on Merce Cunningham's discussion at MASS MoCA in 2000.]

Merce Cunningham Dance Company bring their work EVENT to a packed house at Jacob's Pillow this week. One interesting result of the recent performance was that about 40 people in the audience got up and left in the middle and most of the remainder gave the performance a standing ovation. EVENT is not an easy work, but it rewards the attentive and those who come to it setting aside their preconceived notions of dance and art.

EVENT is performed by the entire company to a soundscape by Company music director Takehisa Kosugi and Andy Russ. The music for each EVENT performance is composed and performed by the Company musicians. The 40 people who chose to leave during the performance may take issue with the sounds that accompanied the performance being described as music.

Certainly, there was no discernible use of harmony or melody, or much in the way of musical instruments. Kosugi's music is mostly comprised of electronic sounds and recorded samples of sounds such as fingers dragging on a blown up balloon, a car starting or a train going by, that have been modified electronically. There is an occasional cello or violin sound in evidence, however, much of the soundscape is extremely dissonant and jarring. At most points, there seems to be no connection between the choreography and the soundscape. Cunningham conducts all rehearsals without musical accompaniment.

Decor and costume are also seemingly "left to chance," or pulled from the Cunningham archives. Costumes by James Hall are simple beige and white leotards randomly tie-dyed. The decor for the first part of the performance was SILVER CLOUDS by Andy Warhol (a set of 13 silver, helium filled, mylar balloons that looked like huge pillows). For the second part of the performance, a large abstract panorama by Robert Rauschenberg called IMMERCE was hung behind the dancers.

In the program notes, ably written by Suzanne Carbonneau, Merce Cunningham's distinguished career as the pioneer of contemporary dance is nicely documented, and some of his artistic intent is clearly described. "Cunningham challenged the assumption that the subject and purpose of art is narrative, personality, drama, symbolism, metaphor and interpretation." Cunningham's choreography still clearly eschews these purposes. The dance is often expressed in fairly conventional dance vocabulary tending at times toward ballet.

The movements are beautiful, fluid, and masterful. True to vision, Merce refuses at every turn (forgive the pun) to invest meaning or expression in the work. Kosugi's soundscape furthers this intention. The audience is left with pure dance and pure sound, often unrelated one to the other

To most in the audience, this was a delight. To some, it was incomprehensible, tiresome, and too challenging. One upshot of Merce's approach is a certain flatness to the work. It has no depth (which is often provided by meaning) and stands simply and with a certain purity as dance and art.

After the performance, my partner made the following pertinent comment: "The human mind is constantly looking to invest meaning and story in what it sees. It's hard for us to attend a 75 minute performance that constantly refuses meaning or story." She loved it, by the way.

One thing that sets Merce's work apart from other contemporary artists is that somehow his work defies our attempts at meaning no matter how hard we try. It is now a standard belief that the audience provides its own meaning to modern art. That may be true, but it is also impossible when it comes to the work of Merce Cunningham. In part, the work's relentless refusal to take on meaning is due to Cunningham's continued and increasingly sophisticated use of chance operations in the composition of his works. Again, to many in the audience this was a cause for celebration, and to some it was reason to leave early.

Whether one appreciates the work of Merce Cunningham or not, the fact remains that he is the father - or grandfather - of contemporary dance, and at the age of 84 continues to create brilliant, challenging work that demands notice.