Merce Cunningham passed away last night (July 26, 2009). His spirit and talent touched millions throughout his 60+ year career in dance. Merci Merce.

After completing the Merce Cunningham Dance Company website redesign in 2005, I had the honor of meeting Merce. This man had a lineage of working with some of the most talented artists of his time for over half a century. He has been honored throughout the world and his work is hailed as one of the great achievements in dance. So there I was, ready to meet the legend.

After being introduced we started talking about the new website. “I hope you like the site Merce” I said. “Oh, the website. Now we are cooking! The website is great, thank you” he replied. He liked it!, and proceeded to encourage me as only a fellow artist can. He was a kind man with warm eyes and the presence of a true master. He taught me about the importance of chance and letting go to the creative forces of the universe.

My most special time with Merce is the night I found myself waiting outside the Joyce Theater with Trevor Carlson (the Executive Director of the Company) and Merce Cunningham when Mikhail Baryshnikov walked up to us. Baryshnikov and Merce had been friends and started talking. Then something happened that was truly special. Mikhail Baryshnikov got down on one knee in front of Merce’s wheelchair, bowed his head and kissed Merce’s hand. What an incredible display of artistic respect. The artist Mikhail Baryshnikov bowing to the master Merce Cunningham. I will never forget it.

“Since its inception, the MCDC also worked with artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg, composers like Gavin Bryars and musicians like Radiohead and Sigur Ros, who collaborated with Cunningham on 2003’s Split Sides (An excerpt of Split Sides is above.) Recently, Rock Daily was on hand when Cunningham staged his piece Nearly Ninety at Brooklyn’s Academy of Music. The piece featured musical performances by Sonic Youth and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.” Groundbreaking Choreographer Merce Cunningham Dead at 90 [Rolling Stone].

“Like Cage and other composers, as well as several painters, Mr. Cunningham also began experimenting with chance as a compositional tool. He used the I Ching in particular, but also cards and dice to determine which parts of the body would be used, which directions, how many dancers. The point had nothing to do with improvisation; Cunningham choreography was very precisely made. Rather, he wanted to banish predictable compositional habits.

The I Ching is the “Book of Changes,” and Mr. Cunningham’s choreography became an expression of the nature of change itself. He presented successive images without narrative sequence or psychological causation, and the audience was allowed to watch dance as one might watch successive events in a landscape or on a street corner.” Merce Cunningham, Influential Choreographer, Dies [New York Times].

Merce Cunningham Remembered Slide Show

Merce Cunningham Full Obituary

Merce Cunningham 1919-2009 Video

Merce Cunningham Dance Company Website

Merce Cunningham Dance Company Repertory