Last night was my first
face-to-face with the Merce Cunningham
Dance Company. It would be enough to say thanks for all they did
and have
done for decades, but that would deprive me of the chance to entice
others to
get to Jacob’s Pillow before the
short run is complete this Sunday, July 26. If you have seen
Cunningham’s
company before, go again and remind yourself that this man, currently
celebrating his 90th birthday, is the epicenter of
contemporary,
modern and future dance.
The current programme
includes three pieces, the second of which includes the optional use of
iPods
that are distributed prior to the performance – you’ll be required to
deposit a credit card or driver’s license. CRWDSPCR,
eyeSpace and Sounddance
absolutely dazzle the eye and ear, the heart and mind, and all at once.
The
exhilaration is pure adrenalin and the after-shocks stay long into the
night
and into the next day. As I write this, I am still smiling and laughing
at the
thought of the bodies flying through space, the beautifully designed
costumes
that couldn’t better complement the master’s purpose. The sound, a
blend of
recorded and live, is often jarring, mostly unsettling and, for all
this,
captivating. I am not a musical pioneer, so let me assure any reader
who thinks
I am being cautious in my reference to music that doesn’t soothe – this
is the only music that makes Merce C and his family dance.
Last week I felt excluded
from both companies’ approaches to their worlds of dance, movement and
theatre.
With Cunningham’s ensemble in full view throughout the evening, I was
stunned
at the agility, mastery of technique and whole-hearted embrace of a
classical
legacy that has a place in the current vocabulary. I know that it’s
unfair to
rate one artist against another and that isn’t what I am aiming to do –
but
it says much about me that with MCDC, I had many ways in to a style,
vocabulary
and worldview and I felt welcome and actively brought into that world.
The thirteen company members
are exquisite, articulate and wholly in synch with their partners. They
give
themselves over to a frenzy that is never rushed but is always pushing
them,
and us, forward. Bodies never rest and our eyes never stop scanning the
entire
stage – everywhere the eye looks, it sees combinations of movement that
resist definition and, instead, inspire invention. There
is no narrative to follow in Cunningham’s work. Rather,
we accept that he is leading and it is our joy to follow. There will be
no test
waiting for us as we leave, no equation to explain and no riddle to
solve.
In an age where we want
answers and expect them to be handed to us in spoon-size bites, made
all the
more palatable when others feed us the morsels, Merce Cunningham
reminds us
that there are alternatives far more fulfilling and genuinely
sustaining. No
empty calories here.