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Creator
Cunningham, Merce
Call number
(S) *MGZMD 295; *MGZRC 83 (Merce Cunningham Dance Company)
Physical description
9.17 linear feet (22 boxes, 1 oversized folder)
Preferred Citation

Merce Cunningham Dance Company Choreographic records, *MGZRC 83. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company Choreographic records contain materials relating to over 100 of Cunningham's original works. These primarily reflect pieces created for the Company, but there are some notes relating to Cunningham's early compositions created between 1942 and 1952. Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a dancer, choreographer, and founder of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Biographical/historical information

Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a dancer, choreographer, and founder of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He was born in Centralia, Washington and began his professional modern dance career at age 20, dancing as a soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company for six years. Cunningham showed promise as a choreographer and presented his first solo show in 1944, acting as both dancer and choreographer.

He formed Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Black Mountain College in 1953. The company provided a platform for collaboration with John Cage, the musical advisor from its inception until his death in 1992. Together, Cunningham and Cage proposed a number of innovations; the most famous of these concerned the relationship between dance and music. While they conceded they should occur in the same time and space, they felt they should be created independently of one another. Cunningham also collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and many others. For Cunningham, the subject of his dances was always dance itself.

Invention and reinvention were a hallmark of the Merce Cunningham Company, and a new genre, the Event, rose from these experiments. Cunningham would splice together different elements from past compositions – solos, duets, costumes, décor, and music to create wholly new experiences – giving new meaning to each piece as it was removed from its original context. Over his career he created over 150 individual works and more than 800 Events.

During the 1970s, Cunningham began to explore filming dance as an art form. In 1989 he began experimenting with composing dances on the computer and Trackers (1991) became his first piece composed in this way. Cunningham danced with the company as he aged, and even after he began to use a wheelchair, continued to choreograph.

After Cunningham's death in 2009, the company embarked on its final, two-year world tour.

Scope and arrangement

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company Choreographic records contain materials relating to over 100 of Cunningham's original works. These primarily reflect pieces created for the Company, but there are some notes relating to Cunningham's early compositions created between 1942 and 1952. The materials consist of choreographic notebooks, both bound and loose, all in Cunningham's hand. There are charts, time outlines, sketches, and names of individual dancers. Most notebooks reflect several periods of change as the dances were premiered and then later pulled back in for use in "Events." There are some Event outlines and plans within the records, as well as choreographic notes for dance workshops given by Cunningham. Many of the notes are dated. Some folders contain a typed explanation of the work by Cunningham, describing what the focus of the specific piece was and ideas he was attempting to explore.

Arrangement

Alphabetical by title.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, Inc., 1999.

Processing information

Processed by Lea Jordan in 2012. Edits to finding aid made by Susan M. Kline, March 2017.

Using the collection

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

Donor retains copyright of materials. Library policy on photocopying will apply. For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Access restrictions

Access and permission to photograph materials is subject to approval by the Merce Cunningham Trust. To request materials, contact the Jerome Robbins Dance Division (dance@nypl.org) in advance.