Documenti di Didattica
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Documenti di Cultura
Don. McDonagh. The rise and fall and rise of modern dance Chicago Review Press, 1990, 33
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Saran Marie Bugeja 301194M Composing for dance : Cage Cunningham collaboration
performed in 1965 and by this time Cage and Cunningham had already worked a lot
together. For this particular piece electricity sensitive metal poles were placed in different
areas of the performance space. These created a magnetic field which when interrupted
by motion, which in this case were the dancers moving around, created audiovisual
changes which altered the environment for the performers and the spectators. The
dance itself in this case although very structured is also very random, which is a
characteristic of Cunninghams work with no interest in narrative and movements
becoming a purely choreographic exercise. In the dance itself he uses potted plants and
by placing them in certain parts of the performing space. Dancers coexist together but
each dancer is treated as an individual, for example one dancer would be repeating a
move and constantly standing on her head,
curling in a ball, jumping up and turning in
mid air and repeating the phrase multiple
times while another dancer would be
watching or doing something completely
different. This individuality in all the dancers
is seamed together through the music they
create themselves by interrupting the
magnetic field onstage.
Another 1965 work which is certainly interesting to note is How to Pass Kick Fall
and Run. This choreographic work consists of the elements mentioned in the title
instead of using objects the dancers use each other's bodies and transfer themselves
from one place to another. The music on the other hand is a totally different story -
literally. Cage recites stories he wrote himself at the rate of one story per minute. They
all vary in length and require various reading speeds with some being read at really fast
speed to fit in that one minute while other short stories can be read comfortably.
Throughout the performance Cage sips at a glass of champagne while sitting out of the
way of the dancers. Sometimes the actor David Voughan would accompany Cage in the
reading of the stories, sometimes taking turns and at other times both would be reading
different stories at different paces simultaneously creating a humorous effect.
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Don. McDonagh. The rise and fall and rise of modern dance Chicago Review Press, 1990, 33
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Saran Marie Bugeja 301194M Composing for dance : Cage Cunningham collaboration
Both men have worked tougher using chance operations and they have also
collaborated with other artists incorporating visual arts and painting as part of the
performance which the dancers would use to move with. This juxtaposition of elements
established the art-form of collage which gave the spectator several elements at the
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same time for them to choose which ones needed the most attention. Apart from
collaborating with other artists both have explored a variety of possibilities in their work.
It is also important to mention Cages use of prepared piano for his chance operation
compositions with Merce. The first piece which the two worked together was in fact a
piece for prepared piano called In the Name of the Holocaust which was first performed
in 1942 and apart from having screws between the piano strings it also made use of
different piano playing technique for example literally punching the keys on the
keyboard. As we have already seen the two men both worked very hard to achieve
something which wasnt intended to shock or to impress but purely for the sake of art. In
this sense both were extremely innovative and remain as two very influential figures for
modern composition and choreography to this day.
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Roger Copeland, Merce Cunningham, Routledge New York and London, 2004, 165
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Saran Marie Bugeja 301194M Composing for dance : Cage Cunningham collaboration
Bibliography
Chance Conversations: An Interview with Merce Cunningham and John Cage, uploaded
on 27 July 2009, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNGpjXZovgk
Copeland, Roger, Merce Cunningham, Routledge New York and London, 2004,
Cornelius Cardew, Cage and Cunningham, The Musical Times, Vol. 105, No. 1459
(Sep., 1964) , pp. 659-660 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd., Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/950245
Cunningham, Merce, Dancing in space and time, Da Capo Press, 1998,
Leta E. Miller Cage, Cunningham, and Collaborators: The Odyssey of "Variations V,
The Musical Quarterly Vol. 85, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001) , pp. 545-567, Published by:
Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3600996
McDonagh, Don. The rise and fall and rise of modern dance Chicago Review Press,
1990
Perloff, M. (2012). Difference and Discipline: The Cage/Cunningham Aesthetic Revisited.
Contemporary Music Review, 31(1), 19-35.
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