Widely considered the most influential dance artist of the 20th century, the US dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) possessed an inexhaustible drive for experimentation that forever reshaped his medium, and contemporary art itself. By testing the limits of dance through technological innovation, collaborations across mediums and even employing the concept of randomness to power his works, Cunningham both expanded and eroded his art form’s boundaries. This video from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota explores six aspects to Cunningham’s 70-year career, from dance maker, collaborator and chance taker, to innovator, film producer and teacher, to put his influence and legacy in context.
Video by Walker Art Center
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Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
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Technology and the self
How the magic of photography brought Victorian England closer to the spirit realm
16 minutes
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Neuroscience
Dog vision is a trendy topic, but what can we really know about how they see?
11 minutes
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Home
An artist endeavours to bring the Moon down to Earth in a ritual of yearning
5 minutes
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Information and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes
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Biology
An elegy for a dying microbe explores what we really mean by ‘death’
9 minutes
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Art
Creating art that was aware of itself – and the viewer – made Manet the first modernist
15 minutes
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War and peace
A century later, can poetry help us make sense of the First World War’s horrors?
9 minutes
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Life stages
What Michelangelo’s late-in-life works reveal about his genius – and his humanness
13 minutes