Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
December 29, 2011 - December 31, 2011
Wade Thompson Drill Hall
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to New York City—its home since its founding in 1953—for six historic final performances at the Armory, culminating a two-year farewell Legacy Tour that brought the Company to more than 50 destinations worldwide. For this last engagement, the Company will perform a series of Events created especially for the occasion across three stages in the Armory’s dramatic Drill Hall. The Company has mounted these signature site-specific choreographic collages in unusual locations around the world throughout its nearly 60-year history, including two previous engagements in the Armory’s Drill Hall, a 1983 performance and the 2009 public memorial for the legendary dancer and choreographer. The Park Avenue Armory Events will feature the last-ever music commission by the MCDC Music Committee and a specially commissioned décor by visual artist Daniel Arsham, who will fill the Drill Hall with massive suspended “clouds” comprised of thousands of individual colored spheres. This momentous engagement marks the final opportunity for audiences to experience first-hand the work of Merce Cunningham as performed by the Company he personally trained and to celebrate Cunningham’s lifetime of creative achievement with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company before it disbands.
Performances
Thursday–Saturday at 6:30pm & 9:00pm
Run Time
This performance is approximately 50 minutes with no intermission.
Production Details
The performance is not intended to be a seated event, though some chairs will be available. Audience members are encouraged to move about the space.
“They say that a drowning man’s past life flashes before his eyes. If drowning brought me further visions of all this choreography, I’d die content.”
The New York Times
Gallery
Artists & Creatives
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Merce Cunningham Dance Company
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Choreography
Merce Cunningham
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Arrangement
Robert Swinston
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Music
David Behrman
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Music
John King
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Music
Takehisa Kosugi
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Music
Christian Wolf
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Décor
Daniel Arsham
Support
Major support provided by The Rockefeller Foundation.
Additional support provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Marc Haas Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Vidda Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.