The Relay Project

Edited and produced by The Royal We, TRP.

In February Merce Cunningham and Victoria Miguel sat down to a supper of chili, mugwort noodles, green beans, with Merlot, and cookies.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing Merce for almost four years to date. It’s something that I treasure. We have supper, we watch movies, we talk, we get things done (separately, not together&emdash;I don’t dance). This is one of our conversations. The microphone was more intrusive than I had thought it would be, Merce knew better. So it goes.” -VM

Merce Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington and received his first formal dance and theater training at the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle. From 1939 to 1945, he was a soloist in the company of Martha Graham. He presented his first New York solo concert with John Cage in April 1944. Merce Cunningham Dance Company was formed at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1953. Since that time Cunningham has choreographed nearly 200 works for his company. His work has also been presented by New York City Ballet, the Ballet of the Paris Opéra, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, White Oak Dance Project, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Zurich Ballet, and Rambert Dance Company (London), among others.

Cunningham has worked extensively in film and video, in collaboration first with Charles Atlas and later with Elliot Caplan. In 1999 the collaboration with Atlas was resumed with the production of the documentary Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime in Dance. Cunningham’s interest in contemporary technology has also led him to work with the computer program DanceForms, which he has used in making all his dances since Trackers (1991). In 1997 he began work in motion capture with Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar of Riverbed Media to develop the décor for BIPED, with music by Gavin Bryars, first performed in 1999 at Zellerbach Hall, University of California at Berkeley. Another major work, Interscape, first given in 2000, reunited Cunningham with his early collaborator Robert Rauschenberg, who designed both décor and costumes for the dance, which has music by John Cage.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s 2004 performances include appearances in Brazil, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.

www.merce.org

Victoria Miguel:

I have every intention of one day going into space, clearly this has not happened yet. You might consider it an aim. I once told a boyfriend about this plan. He thought I was ridiculous, I don't know him anymore. It was a pleasure. I have lived a number of places, I like New York the best so far, although I always have my eye on something less summery, I liked the other places too, it's a fault, but I get nostalgic. Like you I confuse the truths. I like to do some things more than others, writing is high on that list, sunbathing is very low. I'd like to have a go at everything, jump out of an airplane (with parachute), I know already that some things I will never do. It's not problematic, gives me something to dream about. I have had plenty of education, algebra has proved itself to be the most useful thing I have ever learned (really). I like chess as an idea, in practice I have a postmodern attention, I continue to be interested in the peripheries. Unlike a good handbook, this does not improve one's game. Therefore, I have no hobbies to speak of. I was not in the band with Johnny Thunders or with Richard Hell, but I have, on occasion, worn the T-shirt. I could go on…