Bay Area Memories

I met Merce in 1963. I was a student at UCLA and he came to UCLA with his company to be in residence for 8 weeks. I was very young, and it was a major turning point for me ...

I moved to New York to study at the Cunningham Company in 1997 and was granted a scholarship. I took class with Merce for about a year. It was the closest thing to church that I have ever experienced ...

I went to Merce’s studio way back in 1957 after a chance event. What was remarkable was his complete devotion, his complete discipline ...

I danced in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) from 1974 to 1976. Though only 2 years, I was fortunate to learn some of the classic repertory that is being performed by ballet companies worldwide ...

Maybe what Merce presented of himself was all there was. He seemed so calm with none of the darkness and complications, the specters, the bare naked wanting I had. I couldn’t imagine him laying exhausted at night in bed ...

Assemblage was conceived of sometime in 1967 as a collaborative piece between dancers and filmmakers. The basic idea was that Merce would choreograph pieces for the various spaces in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square, and that the filmmakers would interact ...

While Merce’s choreographic process was structured randomly, his dance classes were not. I still adhere to the belief system that ballet technique, coupled with modern aesthetic, builds strong dancers ...

I felt in love with the technique right away because I was attracted to its clarity and its use of space. When you walked in the studio, you felt part of something bigger than yourself. There was such a ...