Hudson Hall Celebrates Merce Cunningham With 6 Week Program

Hudson Hall celebrates the Merce Cunningham Centennial with a 6-week program of dance, music, film, and photography to showcase the work of an iconic artist and the enduring power of his living legacy. Titled Cunningham at 100, the program opens at 5pm on June 22nd with an exhibition of photographs by James Klosty and Stephanie Berger, spanning the course of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's (MCDC) early years to their final performances. At 7:30pm that same evening, filmmakers Lise Friedman and Maia Wechsler present a free screening of their 2018 documentary, If the Dancer Dancers. The film invites viewers into the intimate world of the dance studio, where three former members of MCDC work with Petronio's dancers to re-stage RainForest (1968), revealing what it takes to keep a dance - and a legacy - alive. The screening is followed by a Q&A with Friedman, Wechsler, and choreographer Stephen Petronio. Finally, Stephen Petronio Company returns to Hudson Hall following its sold out engagement in 2018 to perform works by Cunningham and a new piece by Petronio on July 12-14. Reservations for the film screening are highly encouraged. Tickets for Stephen Petronio Company are $40 and can be purchased at hudsonhall.org or by phone at (518) 822-1438.

"It's a special honor to partner again with Stephen Petronio Company to present Cunningham at 100 at Hudson Hall" said Hudson Hall Executive Director, Tambra Dillon. "I was privileged to work at the Cunningham Dance Foundation during MCDC's final years. In fact, the closing of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company marked the beginning of my relationship with Hudson Hall. Merce's body of work is second to none and the incredible multidimensional work being presented, from the dance itself, performed so exquisitely restaged and danced by the Stephen Petronio Company, to the gorgeous photographs and film that immortalize the shape, movement and process of Cunningham's work, all honor this true master of dance and choreography."

The Merce Cunningham Centennial unites artists, companies, and cultural and educational institutions around the world in a multifaceted demonstration of Cunningham's vital legacy. From New York to New Zealand, through performances, film screenings, discussions, curricula, and more, audiences have already begun to experience the work, ideas, and influence of an artist who expanded the frontiers of the performing and visual arts. Merce Cunningham's approach to how the body moves in time and space continues to reframe the ways we understand movement and choreography.

*Image: Photo by Sarah Silver of Taylor Boyland, Mac Twining and Tess Montoya in Stephen Petronio Company's American Landscapes

MERCE CUNNINGHAM: PASSING TIME

An exhibition of photographs by Stephanie Berger & James Klosty

June 22 - August 4

Opening Reception with the artists: Saturday, June 22, 5 - 7pm

Featuring James Klosty's black and white photographs of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's early years (1968-1972) and Stephanie Berger's color-saturated photographs from the final years of MCDC's existence (1996-2011), Passing Time gives viewers a lens into Cunningham's groundbreaking genius. The exhibition creates a dialogue between two eras of one of the most important artists of the late 20th and the early 21st Century.

Klosty's stunning images capture the raw creativity and radical beginnings of the MCDC as they rehearsed and toured the world, redefining dance. His photographs illustrate the unique relationships that existed between choreographer Merce Cunningham and the artists, composers, musicians, painters, and dancers he worked with, most notably John Cage, Carolyn Brown, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor, and Jasper Johns to name just a few.

In contrast, Berger's photos capture a later generation of dancers who have since gone on to illustrious careers, such as Jonah Bokaer, Brandon Collwes, Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Reiner, and Melissa Toogood. Her photos highlight the impact of the choreographer's legacy, emphasizing the heights of the jumps, the quickness of the steps, the geometry and precision of the dancers that are stunning for their virtuosity and unpredictable forms. As technology advanced with digital cameras, time speeds up and the crispness of Berger's pixels contrast with the grain of Klosty's film.

"I photographed the MCDC dancers many times, during dress rehearsals and live performances, including their two-year residency within the site-specific galleries at Dia:Beacon and the company's final performances the Park Avenue Armory," says Berger. "I am still in awe of Merce's collaborations with artists and the cutting-edge innovations he created even as he approached his 10th decade."

IF THE DANCER DANCES (2018)

Screening and Q&A with filmmakers Lise Friedman and Maia Wechsler, and choreographer Stephen Petronio

Saturday, June 22, 7:30pm

Free, reservations encouraged

Former Cunningham dancer Lise Friedman and director Maia Wechsler follow a group of New York City's top modern dancers as they reconstruct RainForest, an iconic Cunningham work from 1968 with décor by Andy Warhol. Viewers are invited into the poetic, tactile world of the dance studio, where former Cunningham dancers teach RainForest to the Stephen Petronio Company, breathing new life into this enigmatic work. Timed to coincide with Cunningham's centenary in 2019, the film throws light on the mysteries of dance-making, revealing what it takes to keep a dance alive.

Lise Friedman was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1977 to 1984. She was editor of the award-winning quarterly Dance Ink and is the author of several books, including two Children's Book of the Month Club Selections. She is coauthor of Letters to Juliet, which inspired the idea behind the eponymous film.

Maia Wechsler is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose films have been broadcast and seen around the world. Prior to working in film, Maia was a journalist in France and the U.S. She devoted her early life to dance and is today a certified yoga instructor, recently teaching women at Rikers Island.

Stephen Petronio COMPANY

Friday, July 12, 7pm

Saturday, July 13, 7pm

Sunday, July 14, 5pm

Tickets: $40

Since establishing the Petronio Residency Center in Round Top, New York two years ago, Stephen Petronio Company returns to Hudson Hall to perform two classic Cunningham works, Tread (1970) and Signals (1970). The company will also present a new work by Stephen Petronio, American Landscapes (2019), featuring music by Jim Jarmusch & Jozef Van Wissem. (Details below)

Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio is widely regarded as one of the leading dance-makers of his generation. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists in many disciplines over his career; a practice that drives his creativity and vision. He continues to create a haven for dancers with a keen interest in the history of the contemporary movement and an appetite for the unknown. Petronio was greatly influenced by working with Steve Paxton and was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Dance Company (1979 to 1986). Since then, he has gone on to build a unique career, receiving numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award, and most recently a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Tread (first performed by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on January 5, 1970 at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in Brooklyn, New York) is a 21-minute work for 10 dancers. The musical score by Christian Wolff will be performed live by members of Composers Inside Electronics, a contemporary ensemble led by John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein. Original costume design was by Cunningham himself, with lighting by Richard Nelson. Bruce Nauman designed the set, which consists of a row of industrial fans.

Signals (first performed by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on June 5, 1970, at Théâtre de France in Paris, France) is a 20-minute work for six dancers. Signals features a constantly changing live score created in performance by composers/musicians from Composers Inside Electronics. Signals was titled after Cunningham's choreography for the piece, which consisted of various cues from dancer to dancer, indicating the next series of movements.

American Landscapes is a new work by Petronio with images by American artist Robert Longo, an original score by the musical duo of Dutch minimalist composer and lute player Jozef Van Wissem and American filmmaker and composer Jim Jarmusch, and lighting by longtime collaborator Ken Tabachnick, who also serves as executive director for the Merce Cunningham Trust. American Landscapes is a series of shifting pastoral, emotional, and social "kinetic canvases" that reflect the complicated beauty and roiling histories of the United States of America. The work features Petronio's signature virtuosic movement language within Longo's large-scale, potent imagery, and Van Wissem and Jarmusch's investigation of multiple historical renditions of the poetry and anthem America the Beautiful.

ABOUT MERCE CUNNINGHAM

MERCE CUNNINGHAM (1919-2009) is widely considered to be one of the most important choreographers of all time. His approach to performance was groundbreaking in its ideological simplicity and physical complexity: he applied the idea that "a thing is just that thing" to choreography, embracing the notion that "if the dancer dances, everything is there."

Cunningham was born in Centralia, WA, and attended the Cornish School in Seattle. There, he was introduced to the work of Martha Graham (he would later have a six-year tenure as a soloist with her company) and met John Cage, who would become the greatest influence on his practice, his closest collaborator, and his life partner until Cage's death in 1992. In 1948, Cunningham and Cage began a relationship with the famed experimental institution Black Mountain College, where Cunningham first formed a dance company to explore his convention-breaking ideas. Merce Cunningham Dance Company (originally called Merce Cunningham and Dance Company) would remain in continuous operation until December 31, 2011, with Cunningham as artistic director until his death in 2009.

Over the course of his 70-year career, Cunningham choreographed 180 dances and over 700 "Events," site-specific choreographic collages. Cunningham proposed a number of radical innovations on how movement and choreography are understood, and sought to find new ways to integrate technology and dance. With long-term collaborations with artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Charles Atlas, and Elliot Caplan, Cunningham's sphere of influence also extended deep into the visual arts world.

Cunningham earned some of the highest honors bestowed in the arts, and his dances have been performed by renowned companies worldwide.

ABOUT THE MERCE CUNNINGHAM TRUST

The Merce Cunningham Trust maintains Cunningham's legacy through active engagement with current and new generations of dancers and audiences. Paramount in its efforts is the goal of ensuring that the proper resources exist for Cunningham's work to flourish with these groups. Recognizing the unique nature of dance, including its ephemerality, the Trust focuses on how Cunningham's choreographic output can be transmitted from body to body, in addition to preserving and disseminating records and written aspects of the work.

ABOUT HUDSON HALL

hudsonhall.org

Hudson Hall is a cultural beacon in the Hudson Valley, offering a dynamic year-round schedule of music, theater, dance, literature, workshops for youth and adults, as well as family programs and large-scale community events such as Winter Walk. Located in a historic landmark that houses New York State's oldest surviving theater, Hudson Hall underwent a full restoration and reopened to the public in April 2017 for the first time in over 55 years. The newly restored Hudson Hall reflects Hudson's rich history in a modern facility that welcomes residents and visitors from throughout our local community, across the nation, and around the globe.

 

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