Merce Cunningham Dance Company in eyeSpace. Photo by Anna Finke.
Suite for Five, which opened the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s intensely diverse two-week residency at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Auditorium Friday evening (Nov. 7), could not but prompt a flight of historical speculation in this viewer.
That same dance, Suite for Five (1953-58), appeared on one of the programs during MCDC’s initial visit to the campus in 1962 with Cunningham dancing the first section and his life partner John Cage steering the performance of his Music for Piano 4-19. What, I wondered, did the audience, surely as hip as they come, make of the work? At the time, modern dance mostly meant Martha Graham, with her mythic and literary subjects, her sinewy, centered technique, her stylish costumes, her overlay of sensuality and her monumental, neo-romantic musical scores.
What they saw here with MCDC were a series of artfully crafted solos and small ensembles that seemed to have descended from another planet. Cunningham asked his audience to gaze upon Robert Rauschenberg’s simple unitards in Crayola hues and to observe the dancers as they explored possibilities of shifting weight that seemed to derive from an aesthetic that embraced everything. Emotional and narrative content were not evident, sequences proceeded without apparent transitions, stage space was constantly redefined, and the movement bore no apparent relationship to the serene, pointillistic score for prepared piano. What the dance offered was a series of moments, each with its own kinetic logic, each to be savored for its beauty and inevitability. Call them epiphanies.
Suite for Five didn’t look new Friday during this Cal Performances presentation, but still, it retained its exquisitely fresh air as Daniel Madoff launched the opening with deep arabesques, fervent stretches, sudden turns and peremptory changes of direction. Holley Farmer’s cool, Olympian aspect introduces a simultaneous solo, which seems to evolve into a duet. We encounter what might be called “an Apollo moment,” in a swimming episode for the pair that seems to reference the Balanchine ballet. The clarity of every gesture, here and in the contributions of Julie Cunningham (no relation), Rashaun Mitchell and Marcie Munnerlyn, a piquant presence in purple, astonishes to the extent that every technical infraction stands out.
There were few of those as the team explores a series of canters, supports and spongy jumps that remain a Cunningham trademark. We are teased with what may emerge group efforts, but those moments pass quickly. A man leans on a woman and a moment later holds her aloft. An affectionate act of partnership ends the piece, which always advances with its own inimitable logic, which includes a series of changements straight from a ballet class. The tensions we expect from multiple dancers on stage arrive, and yet, they don’t. Suite for Five was restaged in 2002 by Cunningham, Robert Swinston and former company member, Carolyn Brown.
Every Cunningham dance seems to enlighten us further about his preoccupations. And this residency looks like nothing less than a primer in the quality of Merce.
Holley Farmer, Brandon Collwes and company members of Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Second Hand. Photo by Anna Finke.
The return of the full company BIPED to the hall in which it received its world premiere in 1999 was a glorious moment in a weekend refulgent with glories, but it also reminds the world of the extent to which the choreographer is devoted to conjuring sheer theatrical magic. The 45-minute piece (which will be repeated Friday evening), abounds in moments of evanescent sensuality, and every element contributes to that effect. You start with the animation technology of motion capture. Digital images of the dancers’ movement float across the scrim like smoke rings. Gavin Bryars’ score for brass, strings and synthesizer is eminently attractive and the dancers in Suzanne Gallo’s metallic costumes emit both heat and light. Cunningham probes the theatrical impact of entrances and exits here more than in any other dance that I can recall. First, it’s couples who emerge from the darkness, then two ranks of dancers who materialize from the sides. Sometimes, the dancers seem to mirror the projections; sometimes, the relationship seems contrapuntal, and the piece, a captivating Cunningham experience, never looks the same twice.
Friday’s program also included the short, 20-minute version of eyeSpace, introduced to the Bay Area earlier this year at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium. This is the piece that involves the ipods, which deliver information that contrasts with Mikael Rouse’s International Cloud Atlas, blasted through the hall. My ipod failed to deliver its contents Friday (my fault, I am sure). Still, despite Henry Samuelson’s vibrant décor, the piece seemed all mechanics and not much content. Group unisons melt into a charming duet for Julie Cunningham and Daniel Squire, and it’s over before you’ve even set the volume control on your ipod. The longer version of eyeSpace, with a different décor and different music, is the better bet and that work will open Friday’s program.
Saturday’s concert brought us a rare revival of the 1970 Second Hand, with veteran company member Swinston assuming Cunningham’s former role. Dressed in Jasper John’s stylish white outfit, he conjures, through shoulder shifts and commanding arm gestures, feats of dexterity from the nine dancers. Think Prospero. An announced change of cast yielded Farmer’s exquisitely aligned solo, a study in classical balance and the Cunningham version of a male chorus line. This viewer’s knees ached just watching these dancers’ frequent descents. The music is Cage’s wily Cheap Imitation, a rewrite and transcription of Erik Satie’s Socrate, undertaken when the composer’s estate would not grant rights for the use of the original.
The Berkeley premiere Saturday of Split Sides reminded all of Cunningham’s deployment of chance procedures throughout his career, a contribution of his late partner. Decided by rolls of dice were the order of the two parts, the costumes (color, monochrome),the music (Radiohead, Sigur Rös), lighting and décor (Robert Heishman, Catherine Yass). There’s something comforting in realizing that Split Sides may never have been given this way before, and may never be given this way again.
Unfortunately, the stronger part came first in this game of chance. The sudden leaps and lifts suggest a community of demigods at play. Saturday’s star contribution came from Silas Riener whose off-kilter solo, splendidly dispatched, prompted a spontaneous ovation. Riener joined MCDC last year, and if he is typical of the youngest generation of Cunningham dancer, the repertoire is in very good hands, indeed.
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company completes its Zellerbach Hall run with two different programs Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Saturday’s program includes the local premiere of the recent XOVER. Tickets: 510.642.9988, www.calperformances.org.
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