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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Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
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Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
29 minutes
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Making
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
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Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
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Bioethics
Is it ethical to have a second child so that your first might live?
10 minutes
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Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes
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Pleasure and pain
The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy
12 minutes
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Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes