| I'm a big believer in dance as a cultural expression and | | | | even the one-minute solo on this TV show. I can count |
| diversity resource. The recent death of choreographer | | | | on the fingers of one hand the famous |
| Merce Cunningham at age 90 should rightly lead us to | | | | choreographers who lasted as long as Cunningham. |
| reflect on the abstract style he created and the era he | | | | Today's dance audience has been schooled to be less |
| represented. He came from a time where the dance | | | | purist and more diverse. You can see the trend in |
| was distanced from the audience. Cunningham | | | | action with the vast array of dance forms explored in |
| collected prestige, accolades and awards with the | | | | the TV show, So You Think You can Dance. Besides |
| numerous achievements of his lifetime. There was a | | | | being great entertainment, the show is a cultural |
| respectful and awesome silence during his | | | | anthropologist's dream. Bollywood, Broadway, Disco, |
| performances. There was none of the hooting and | | | | ballroom, hip hop, jazz, classical and contemporary, the |
| hollering of 3,000 people circus in Hollywood's Kodak | | | | show is a walking encyclopedia of dance. The judges |
| Theater for the show, So You Think You Can Dance. | | | | and choreographers are risk takers, exploring virtually |
| Now that I've given Cunningham his due, I would like to | | | | every styles regardless of sometimes spotty success. |
| confess that I did not enjoy his work. He and his long | | | | (I could do without the attempts at Russian folk dance.) |
| time partner, composer John Cage, were creatures of | | | | Today's emphasis on personalities leaves |
| an abstract, post-modern mode of music and dance. | | | | Cunningham's approach a bit on the sidelines. We are |
| For me, their relationship between music and dance | | | | no longer the audience he attracted. Dance may be |
| was so separate as to be non-existent at times. | | | | hard to quantify and explain but it goes to the heart of |
| Cunningham's work was for many, dance at its purest, | | | | a people. Dance styles are mini-cultures in themselves |
| unhindered by story or music. He appealed to those | | | | and they change with the times, the people, the |
| who appreciated the purity of geometrical, abstract | | | | technology. They may occupy a similar stage, but they |
| lines and the celebration of the impersonal, and the | | | | have their own language, philosophy and traditions. And |
| beauty of seemingly random patterns. | | | | don't mess with them. Just think how well dance |
| When I was young, it was common knowledge that | | | | expressed gang fights in West Side Story, that is, if |
| Cunningham was a student of Martha Graham, a | | | | you're of the right generation to have seen West Side |
| deeply emotional and highly emotive dancer. Graham | | | | Story. |
| was a theatrical figure and her work was full of fire, | | | | That's why it's so unbelievable that the young dancers |
| turmoil and drama. Graham's technique was built on the | | | | of So You think You Can Dance master a different |
| 'contraction' of the gut. For many of us Graham fans, | | | | dance style a week. I couldn't even make the leap |
| Merce Cunningham was almost entirely cerebral. I | | | | from Graham to Cunningham; trust me, my attempts |
| never made the transition. | | | | were laughable. Yet, this show has featured a hip hop |
| Despite the lack of meeting of minds, I do honor | | | | dancer doing the Viennese waltz, break dancer doing |
| Cunningham for his longevity in a business that is a | | | | contemporary style and a Latin ballroom expert getting |
| burn out from the get go. Injuries, poverty, modest | | | | funky. What a metaphor for diversity! Plunge in, learn |
| visibility are the norm for most. The joke about | | | | fast, and be bold in learning a new culture. With their |
| dancers earning a living waiting on tables in New York | | | | abilities to cross the cultures of dance, these dancers |
| City was no joke. Most non-dancers cannot imagine | | | | earned the hoots and hollers, and hopefully will earn a |
| the discipline and the class work it takes to perform | | | | living and be as memorable as Merce Cunningham. |