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Jacob's Pillow Celebrates Choreographer Merce Cunningham's 90th Birthday with Performances, Pillowtalks & a New Exhibit
BECKET, MA: Merce Cunningham Dance Company, founded over half a century ago by modern dance pioneer Merce Cunningham and hailed as one of the world’s pre-eminent companies, returns to Jacob’s Pillow July 22-26 for a weeklong engagement celebrating the choreographer’s 90th birthday. The Pillow presents a six-performance retrospective of masterworks, two Cunningham-related PillowTalks, and a season-long exhibition titled The Art of Merce Cunningham that highlights his groundbreaking collaborations with visual artists. Cunningham, who has a longstanding history with the Pillow, recently announced plans for the future of his company, making this season’s presentations all the more meaningful. Once Cunningham is no longer able to serve as Artistic Director, his company will embark on a two-year international tour, concluding with a final performance in New York City before disbanding. As a result, this could well be the last time Merce Cunningham Dance Company will perform at Jacob’s Pillow.
Merce Cunningham was honored with the 2009 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award at the Pillow’s Season Opening Gala. The Award, which honors and supports visionary choreographers, is made possible by a generous anonymous donor. Given each year to an outstanding choreographer, the award carries a cash prize of $25,000 to be used by the artist in any way they choose.“Merce Cunningham is a brilliant thinker, dancemaker, and extraordinary person altogether,” comments Jacob’s Pillow Executive Director Ella Baff. “He has changed the way we see and understand dance and music. We are proud to honor his contributions to our field and his long-standing relationship with the Pillow, which dates back to 1955. It is with great respect and admiration that we present him with the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award during his 90th birthday year.”
Cunningham, described as the world’s “greatest living artist” by Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times, first appeared at the Pillow in 1995, when he performed with his newly formed company. The following year, Ted Shawn commissioned a new work from Cunningham titled Nocturnes, which premiered here in July, 1956. That six-performance engagement was an important event for both Cunningham and the Pillow, given that the company had only 11 scheduled performances that year. Though it would be almost 30 years before they returned, the company has since performed at the Festival seven times. “The rich relationship we have enjoyed here at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company with Jacob's Pillow spans over fifty years,” Cunningham has said. “I have been honored to have my name associated with this organization.”
The Cunningham program features outstanding repertoire from the past three decades. It opens with CRWDSPCR (pronounced "crowdspacer"), which premiered in 1993. In a method Cunningham has used with all of his works since 1991, CRWDSPCR was choreographed using the computer software DanceForms, a program he helped to develop that allows choreographers to create works in a digital 3D environment. Set to a series of electronic distortions of the Dobro Steel guitar by composer and guitarist John King, the work, for seven women and six men, explores the mapping of movement in a limited space. Fast footwork and dynamic transitions create the impression of nonstop, frenetic energy, and multi-colored costumes, segmented into squares across the dancers’ bodies, add a visual element that complements the piece fully.
Sounddance was first performed in 1975 and draws its title from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (“In the beginning was the sounddance”). It originally featured Cunningham leading a cast of ten dancers and remained in the company’s repertory until 1980. Since then, Sounddance has been revived twice, mostly recently in 2004, and now features Robert Swinston in the Cunningham role. Swinston, a former student of The School at Jacob’s Pillow, has been Cunningham’s assistant since 1992 and directs Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group. Set to an electronic score by David Tudor, the work begins with the dancers entering the stage one by one from a golden draped curtain. A tension builds throughout as the dancers bend, tilt, and twirl around each other, but the mood is lively and high-spirited, created by a whirlwind of continuous and seemingly spontaneous movement. As Gia Kourlas of The New York Times describes it, Sounddance “encapsulates a moment in time: not just the year in which it was made, but any moment when tension builds to an awful peak and is released with an emphatic bang.”
eyeSpace, the final work on the program, was created in 2006. Cunningham is famous for his belief that dance and music exist independently, and with eyeSpace, he explores that idea even further. At the beginning of each performance, audience members are loaned iPods and given the option of shuffling through a score by composer Mikel Rouse. For those who choose to do otherwise, ambient sound fills the theatre. As the 12 dancers in ocean blue unitards move across the stage, the viewing of the piece becomes a uniquely personal experience. An exhibit titled The Art of Merce Cunningham will be on display in the Ted Shawn Theatre lobby Tuesdays through Sundays, June 24-August 30. Open 30 minutes before performances, this special tribute to Cunningham’s 90th birthday celebrates his rich collaborations with visual artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol, documented in costumes, sketches, posters, and other artifacts from the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Archives. The Art of Merce Cunningham is also the subject of the season's first of two Cunningham-related PillowTalks, led by MASS MoCA Director Joseph Thompson and longtime Cunningham archivist David Vaughan, who will discuss these artistic partnerships on Wednesday, July 22 at 5pm. The second PillowTalk, Dancing for Cunningham, features dancers who have made the leap from The School at Jacob’s Pillow to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. On Saturday, July 25 at 4pm, several dancers, including current company members Robert Swinston and Melissa Toogood, will share their most memorable experiences, both at the Pillow and as Cunningham dancers.
With a career distinguished by innovation and artistic collaboration, Cunningham has transformed the world of contemporary dance and forged new ways of thinking about movement as it relates to time and space. Cunningham received his formal dance training from Seattle’s Cornish College of Arts before moving to New York City to dance as a soloist in Martha Graham’s company for five years. In 1944, he presented his first solo concert with composer John Cage, his longtime partner and collaborator, and in1953, formed Merce Cunningham Dance Company with a group of 14 dancers. Since that time, Cunningham has choreographed nearly 200 works for his company, and his works have been presented by dozens of companies all over the world, including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Cunningham's life and artistic vision have been the subject of four books and three major exhibitions, and he has received multiple distinguished awards and honors, including the 1990 National Medal of Arts, the Laurence Olivier Award in London, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Kennedy Center Honors.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company recently announced The Living Legacy Plan, a comprehensive roadmap for the future of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. The Living Legacy Plan is the first of its kind in the dance world, and involves systematic preparation, a high-profile international tour, comprehensive documentation and digitizing efforts, and, at the appropriate time, the thorough and well-prepared closure of the Cunningham Dance Foundation’s operations. The Foundation believes that this plan will enable the company and its partners worldwide to celebrate Cunningham’s creative achievements and ensure that present and future generations of students, scholars, artists, and audiences will be able to study and enjoy his work.
Performance and Ticket Information: Wednesday, July 22 through Saturday, July 25, 8pm; Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26, 2pm. Tickets are $58 each, with discounts available for subscribers, seniors, students, and children age 16 and under. $10 Sunday youth matinee tickets available. Box Office hours: Monday through Saturday, 10am – 6pm, and Sunday 11am – 6pm. To purchase by phone, call the Box Office at 413.243.0745. To order online: www.jacobspillow.org. Pillow Members receive exclusive benefits. To become a Member call 413.243.9919 x24.
Jacob’s Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2). The Jacob’s Pillow campus and theaters are handicapped-accessible. Free PillowTalks in Blake’s Barn: The Art of Merce Cunningham, Wednesday, July 22 at 5pm. MASS MoCA director Joseph Thompson and longtime Cunningham archivist David Vaughan discuss Cunningham’s revolutionary aesthetic approach to dance. Cunningham’s incorporation of visual art by Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and others is also explored in this summer’s free exhibit in the Ted Shawn Theatre Lobby. On Saturday, July 25 at 4pm, Robert Swinston, assistant to the choreographer for Merce Cunningham Dance Company, joins Melissa Toogood and other dancers who studied at The School at Jacob’s Pillow and later danced with the company. In Dancing for Cunningham, they reflect on their most memorable experiences at the Pillow and as Cunningham dancers.
Inside/Out performances at 6:30pm: Wednesday, July 22, Hartford-area Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts celebrates its 40th anniversary with a performance of excerpts from Nutmeg Ballet’s classical and contemporary repertoire. A world-class training ground for classical ballet students, the conservatory brings together summer trainees, choreographers, and alumni from professional companies for its Pillow performance. Thursday, July 23, Pam Tanowitz Dance merges classical ballet and modern dance to demonstrate the wide range of possibility in movement. The New Yorker describes Tanowitz as “a clear sighted post-modernist” who seeks to rid the audience of preconceived notions about what dance should be. Friday, July 24, Terrain Dance performs My Serenade, a work choreographed by Rebecca Lazier and set to music by Tchaikovsky. An alumna of The School of Jacob’s Pillow, Lazier’s work is both contemporary and experimental, intimate and grand. Saturday, July 25, students of The School at Jacob’s Pillow—Contemporary Traditions perform a work by Helen Pickett, a former principal dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. This performance concludes the students’ second week of professional study under the direction of master teacher Milton Myers.
Ongoing Free Exibits: In Blake’s Barn, A Dance to Jules Feiffer, an exclusive exhibition created for and debuting at Jacob’s Pillow that focuses on the dance imagery of renowned cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jules Feiffer and Alvin Ailey: Anniversary Salute which celebrates the 50th anniversary season of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with rare photographs by John Lindquist and John Van Lund. In the Ted Shawn Theatre lobby, The Art of Merce Cunningham, a tribute to Cunningham’s 90th birthday that documents his collaborations with distinctive visual artists with costumes, sketches, posters, and other artifacts from the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Archives. Outsiders, a selection of open-air images of dance at the Pillow including classics by John Lindquist and John Van Lund, in Bakalar Studio, and Tap!, a photography exhibit featuring acclaimed artists such as Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Dianne Walker, and others, in the Doris Duke Theatre Lobby.Other Free Activities
The Archives at Jacob’s Pillow allows impromptu visitors to view videos, browse through books, access the Pillow's computer catalog, or peruse permanent collections of Pillow programs and photographs. Pillow Interactive, a popular touch-screen kiosk, provides instant interlinked access to rare film clips ranging from the present day back to the 1930s.
Patrons are always welcome to explore the historic grounds to discover all the reasons why the Pillow was named a National Historic Landmark, with Guided Tours leaving from the Welcome Center every Friday and Saturday at 5:30pm. Self-guided tour maps are always available as well.
Visitors can also relax in the historic Tea Garden, where Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers welcomed the first Pillow audiences in the 1930s, as they peek into the Bakalar Studio to watch rehearsals; or stroll through several ecological zones on the Wetlands Trail, created as part of the Pillow’s responsible stewardship of its 163 acres of rural environment.
Dance Opportunities
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Morning Jumpstart Classes offered in Pilates, Ballet, Modern, and more, Mondays through Thursdays at 8am. All experience levels, 16 and older, $8 per class, Ruth St. Denis Studio. Call the Education Hotline at 413.243.9919 x17. |
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Weekly Master Classes are led by Festival artists Sundays at 10:30am to noon for intermediate and advanced dancers, $15 per class. Pre-registration is required; quiet observation is welcome at no charge. Call the Education Hotline at 413.243.9919 x17. |
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The School at Jacob’s Pillow is open to public observation Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9am–5pm, featuring world renowned faculty at no charge. Interested groups of four or more should confirm space availability by calling 413.243.9919 x17. |
Dining
| The Pillow Café offers fine dining with wine service under the tent on The Great Lawn. Wednesdays through Saturdays, dinner is served 5–7pm. Reservations are required, call 413.243.2455. |
| The Pillow Pub offers casual family fare, takeout for picnics, and full bar service. Wednesdays through Fridays 5pm–midnight, Saturdays noon–midnight, and Sundays noon–5pm. |
| The Coffee Bar and Ice Cream Bar are open pre-performance and during intermissions. |
Sample menus for each dining venue are available at www.jacobspillow.org. Pillow Patrons are also invited to bring picnics and relax at one of many choice picnic spots on the Pillow grounds.