In the footsteps of Merce Cunningham

This month, the dance world is celebrating what would’ve been Merce Cunningham’s 100th birthday. For over half a century the American dancer and choreographer embraced innovation and expanded the frontiers of contemporary art, performing arts, visual arts and music.

Merce Cunningham dancers are famous for seeming to defy the laws of physics and gravity leaping high into the air and then suddenly switching direction.

“I always feel that my legs are like needles of a sewing machine when I’m doing Cunningham. They have to be very sharp and very articulate and I feel that the torso has to be free on top of that,” says Daniel Roberts, who was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. “There’s a strain that comes along with doing the work and the technique and there’s a clarity about the work in general, the use of space and the articulation of the torso and the limbs that I’ve never experienced before in any other dance form.”

Cunningham’s legacy goes beyond dance and was seeded in his frequent collaborations with artists in other disciplines such as musicians John Cage, Brian Eno, Radiohead, artists Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and costume designer Rei Kawakubo, among others.

(Originally aired June 9, 2001 and April 27, 2002)