By Andrea Poteet
After more than 50 years, an avant-garde dance company will take the stage one last time.
But as the curtain falls on the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which will disband following the completion of its Legacy Tour, it is worth noting the men behind the dance steps.
Choreographer Merce Cunningham and music director John Cage were long-time partners in business and life, beginning in the early 1940s, after they met at the Cornish School in Seattle in 1938. After Cunningham left for another dance troupe in Manhattan that year, Cage followed and later left his marriage for Cunningham. He was also credited with convincing Cunningham to form his own dance company. They were together until Cage's death in 1992. Cunningham died in July 2009 at age 90, and worked with the company up until three weeks before his passing.
According to Cunningham's wishes, the troupe launched a two-year Legacy Tour, which will hit the stage at Ann Arbor's Power Center for Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Feb. 18 and 19.
From its humble beginnings touring in a Volkswagen bus driven by Cage, the company grew to be seen as a leader in avant-garde dance. Cunningham and Cage helped revolutionize many aspects of the dance and music worlds, says Trevor Carlson, the company's executive director. Cage was one of the first artists to use electronic music, and the pair pioneered the idea of choreography and music happening independently but simultaneously.
"That was really controversial when they presented it," Carlson says. "And for a number of years it remained controversial, but now when you see a dance performance and something else is happening at the same time…we really don't think of it being uncomfortable or unheard of."
That unique combination of disjointed dance and music continued throughout the decades. The company has collaborated with artists ranging from pop painters like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to musical acts like Radiohead, who along with Icelandic band Sigur Ros, composed the electronic score to a piece called "Split Sides," which will be presented at the performance.
For the Legacy Tour, the company will dust off routines from each decade of its existence. The company will also appear in a range of educational events about Cunningham's work, including a Feb. 13 screening of the film "A Lifetime of Dance," at the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus the week prior to the shows. The tour, which began in February 2010 and is set to end with a New Year's Eve performance at the company's hometown of New York, is designed to represent the development of Cunningham's work, for which he was awarded the National Metal of the Arts by the White House in 1990.
"We're living in a world that has already been enriched and influenced by his legacy," Carlson says of Cunningham.
When he ponders Cunningham's legacy, Carlson thinks of his groundbreaking choreography, and of one of the few public comments he and Cage made about their relationship, an anecdote that was one of Cunningham's favorites: At a panel discussion several years ago, an attendee who had been asking the pair pointed questions finally asked Cage to describe the nature of his relationship with Cunningham.
"They both sort of sat in silence," Carlson recalls. "And then Cage said, 'Well, I cook, and Merce does the dishes.'"
Legacy Tour
8 p.m. Feb. 18-19
Power Center
121 Fletcher St., Ann Arbor
$20-$54
http://www.ums.org
