Dance Education
Life Forms and Biped
Cunningham, the first pioneer of dance technology
The Concept
Merce Cunningham’s choreographic concept relied on neither design nor music, instead, he believed that all art forms could exist independently of each other yet occupy the same space (Copeland and Cohen, 1983, 232).
Cunningham thought, however, that music and dance did have a common factor, ‘Time’, for they could cohabit the same space, at the same time. Therefore, his philosophy was that none of these arts needs the other for inspiration and frequently meet for the first time in the performance.
Early Career
Cunningham originally started his training with Bonnie Bird, from the ‘Graham Company’ at the Cornish School in Seattle. In 1939 he joined the Graham Company in New York. Martha Graham’s approach was ‘Expressionist,’ she believed in connecting to her inner landscape, therefore making her work emotive. She believed that dance should convey emotion but there need not be a reason for it, (Dempster in Carter, 1998, 223–226).
Cunningham moved away from this approach and challenged its themes. He wanted to create dance that was about the movement itself and not controlled by emotion or narrative. Contrary to Graham, he did…
