As part of the international centennial celebration of choreographer Merce Cunningham’s legacy of iconoclasm, and in collaboration with the Merce Cunningham Trust, the dance departments of Cornish College of the Arts and University of Washington present the fruits of a two-week immersion in Cunningham’s innovative and influential practices in chance operations. The residency honors the centenary of Cunningham’s birthday and acknowledges his formative training at Cornish, where he met composer John Cage and formed a partnership that has influenced generations.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company alums Douglas Dunn and Holley Farmer (also a UW and Cornish alum) and dance students will present an informal performance of works-in-progress generated using Cunningham’s tools of chance procedures and indeterminacy. This new generation of dancers will present their own creative work developed in response to the legendary choreographer’s groundbreaking contributions to the field, revealing the possibilities that emerge through his experiments. This event culminates Dunn and Farmer’s two-week teaching residency in the Cornish and UW dance departments.