Thursday night I went to my second show at the Barbican. I’d been looking forward to this show all month.
It’s dance.
It’s Merce Cunningham’s dance troupe.
It’s a UK premier of this show.
Despite all the hype, or perhaps (partially) because of it I was disappointed. I really hate to say that, because all the times I’ve been given Cunningham technique in class I’ve loved it. But this show, which he choreographed to premiere in the US on his 90th birthday was in the realm of modern dance which I do not enjoy. The music, if you could call it that, was a cacophonous chaos. I would dare to call it noise at parts. Especially the one vocal interlude in which it sounded as if an old man were having issues… well, existing.
The dance itself elicited opposing reactions in me. The dancers were stunning and beautiful. The choreography had beautiful moments in it, but overall was chaotic and bizarre. So I enjoyed short little phrases here and there, but the entire thing was definitely not my cup of tea. It was that kind of modern dance that is almost choppy and incongruous in its execution because it doesn’t have a solid enough through line in the “story”. Though, looking at the dance as a representation of the grotesque body I can see the through line. I just didn’t enjoy it. I’m not sure if I was meant to, but with this show I wanted to.
From an analytical point of view I can see what Cunningham did with this piece. The repetition of the choreography, the choppiness mixed with fluidity. It was the process of ageing, of losing focus, mobility, strength, yet with some sort of desire to go on. It worked on that level. It worked as that sort of “art”. It did not work as entertainment. Not for me.
I’ve always had a hard time with Cunningham.
I like John Cage and I like when William Forsythe choreographs to him (if you get a chance to see ANYTHING by him while in London, please do so. He’s amazing and my favorite choreographer [well, maybe not favorite since Fosse, Robbins, Tharp, and Balanchine currently hold that honor] and would love to see his company perform).
I like Cunningham if I turn the sound off.
But I don’t like them together OR when Cunningham choreography with sound (I admit I haven’t seen every one of his pieces, but the ones I’ve seen, not so much a fan of).
I mean, I definitely appreciate what he did for modern dance and I understand why he chose for there to be a discord between his choreography and the music he used. But I just don’t like it!
I’m glad I’m not the only dancer that feels like this! Most of the people I talked to my dance department back home loved Cunningham and all his work. Then again 75% of them were strongly modern dancers. So I thought that maybe it would be something I liked… but like you said he did great things for modern dance, there’s just too much discord for some of us.
I’ll definitely be checking out Forsythe – I’m sure something will come through. In fact I’m tacking it to the cork board above my desk so I don’t forget to look. I definitely agree with you on some of your favorites (Fosse, Balanchine, I’m less familiar with Robbins and Tharp – though I have read some of Tharps work and I like what she has to say. Now to do some youtube research…)