These days… my summer routine includes a daily dose of Merce Cunningham.

Thanks to SUNY Purchase, the wonderful Carol Walker, and the Lifetime Legacy Summer 2010 Scholarship, I get to take class 6 times a week for 12 full weeks. This technique has been quite a learning experience for me. At school I took two Cunningham classes a week, in the middle of the other 10 hours I spent dancing a day. Being able to concentrate on this school, taking Cunningham every day, is proving to make all the difference. I get a different teacher essentially every day. Their opinions are incredibly well informed. The intelligent people I am learning from gained their knowledge from personal experience as well as learning from Merce himself. Most of the teachers are or were in the Cunningham Company. Overall I feel that I am learning to understand my body on a new level. In addition to making me move fearlessly, the technique is forcing me to figure out the mechanics - no cheating allowed. For instance, I’m experimenting with a new way of relating to my pelvis when I dance. It effects me when I plie (dancer term for bending your legs), when I move in space, and even when I sit down. 

Now… I am aware that to a non-dancer this sounds like a very strange thing to be thinking about. However, it is something we pay a lot of attention to: the pelvis. In modern dance - traditionally the more original, early developments of codified ideas: eg. Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham -  the pelvis is the center of all movement. Movement is usually initiated with the pelvis and all energy that extends outward is rooted there. The placement of the pelvis is crucial to how the rest of the body aligns itself and has mobility around its base. During the classes I have been taking, a lot of emphasis is put on proper alignment - and why shouldn’t it be? How else can one expect to ask dancers to move in ridiculous ways - as they so often are? Basically, things are making more sense! I’ve learned so much in just these few weeks. Things are already becoming easier for my body to do. (Although I still have much to learn!) This technique is extremely beneficial to all dancers in many ways. I am not here to attempt to be hired by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company - although I wouldn’t turn it down : ) I am here to become a better dancer, or perhaps one who has a broader perspective than when she moved to new york city almost a month ago.  

At this point all I have managed to babble on about is my pelvis. My apologies! It seems to be on my mind quite often these days!

Here is a picture of the Cunningham Company performing in one of the most beautiful spaces I have ever had the pleasure of being in: Dia Beacon. Gives you an idea of their aesthetic/athletic demand of the technique. So long for now!