Episode 8 of Mondays with Merce teaches us that though Merce himself has passed on, the fundamentals still apply—and that is where he began. Let's do the same.

Phoenix Art Museum
Ellman Fashion Design Gallery
November 7 - March 7, 2010

Featuring more than 30 garments, Geoffrey Beene: Trapeze profiles a fanciful custom-made wardrobe from Patsy Tarr, a prominent supporter of dance in New York and our founder and publisher.

Unlike a retrospective, the exhibition provides unique insight into the creative relationship between designer and client. Featuring one-of-kind garments and unique items, the exhibition clearly expresses the designer’s sense of humor and expertise with fabric. Also present is Beene’s love of flowers, dots, curves, wraps, folds and triangles, reoccurring themes present is several of the designs.

Designed by our own Abbott Miller, the installation draws inspiration from Beene’s love of the circus. Surrounded by polka-dots and stripes, specially designed mannequins will be suspended from the ceiling displaying Patsy's clothes. Tom Kalin’s film “30” commissioned by Beene in 1993, will play on a continuous loop - its film noir surrealism complementing the installation theme.

The sky crackled with lightning last night, the air rattled with thunder, and at home, peacefully, in his sleep, Merce Cunningham joined with the elements so natural to him: the earth, the sky, the water, and the air. Those birds he drew--they could fly, as he once could, and as, until his last week, he set his dancers to doing. He said recently that choreography had become, for him, "a habit of mind." We were talking, then (for "Mondays with Merce"), about how he could choreograph now that he could no longer move--as in like manner Beethoven composed when he could no longer hear.... As movement was taken from him, his dancers gave it back to him. So direct, their process with Merce: thought into movement, with nothing intermediary. These past months, he was tired; but he was game. He never stopped laughing, at himself as much as anyone or anything. To the end he was gallant and courteous with visitors, and clear. Always clear, like those green eyes that could look as blue as the sky on a cloudless day. I asked him this:

"Merce, how is it that without music, without narrative, and with your using chance procedures to remove yourself, to keep from imposing your personality on the movement, that your dances are so passionate?" "Because," he said, "I love dancing!"

Copyright © 2009 Nancy Dalva
Photo courtesy Hugo Glendinning

The board and staff of the Cunningham Dance Foundation and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company honor the extraordinary life of our friend and mentor Merce Cunningham. Merce revolutionized the visual and performing arts - not for the sake of iconoclasm, but for the beauty and wonder that lay in exploring new possibilities. An inspiring performer and dancer into his 80s, and a visionary chorographer and dedicated teacher throughout his life, he led quietly and by example. With his partner John Cage, he opened up new ways of perceiving and experiencing the world, and his insatiable curiosity, collaborative spirit, and love of the new inspired countless artists across disciplines. Merce has left an indelible mark on our collective creativity and culture; his legacy will resonate in the dance world and beyond for generations to come.

In their words:

"Our urban environments are about far more than bricks and concrete. Architecture comes alive when used as an urban playground, offering a never-ending set of challenging surfaces and spaces to those willing to explore them."

This portfolio is continued at their own site, linked below.

All photography © Alex & Cocco, www.distilennui.com.

In Merce's own words:

"Presented without intermission, Events consist of excerpts of dances from the repertory and new sequences arranged for the particular performance and place, with the possibility of several separate activities happening at the same time."

Watch it here.

This is an intriguing installment in the ongoing Mondays with Merce series---one which explores the notion of dancing as yourself, not in character in a narrative piece.

And DART has posted a wonderful writeup at their site of our exhibition at the AIGA Gallery. Thanks to everyone! hope to see you at Chez Bushwick.

Image from New York Social Diary's interview with Jonah.

Disco ball hung and set spinning, the AIGA celebrated the opening on April 2nd of the exhibition Everybody Dance Now: 20 Years of Dancing in Print at the AIGA National Design Center in New York. The survey looks back at the magazines Dance Ink and 2wice and the longstanding collaboration between their publisher Patsy Tarr and art director and designer Abbott Miller. Many of the dancers, choreographers and artists featured in the pages of 2wice were present for the occasion, and while none of the attending designers attempted the moves pictured on the walls, a little shimmying could be detected among the group, along with a sense of wonder at the exuberant dance and design on display.

Designed by Miller, the exhibition presents over 40 issues of the magazines that appear to unfold along the walls of the gallery, the issues deconstructed and their pages mounted in succession on accordion-folded sheet-metal displays. Several issues of 2wice are presented in their entirety, emphasizing the cinematic nature of the magazine's collaborations with dancers and choreographers. The display strategy allows visitors to see how the performances play out over multiple pages. Several intact issues are presented on banks of displays in the center of the gallery, where visitors can flip through their pages. On a large screen overhead pages from the magazines appear in a large-scale projection. A strategically placed 30-inch disco ball dapples the room, evoking the stage and the dance hall, and making pedestrians wandering down Fifth Avenue wonder if they are invited to the party. They are.

Let's dance.

Installation photos by Harry Zernike. Party photos by Federico Rodriguez-Caldentey.

Many thanks to everyone who could make it to Everybody Dance Now's opening last week.

For those of you who couldn't be in New York with us, here's a great writeup of the exhibit from Creative Review.

Photograph from the Creative Review blog.

Everybody Dance Now is getting some fantastic reviews for its viusal presentation. Here's a great example from The Creative Review and this, at UnBeige. If you want a copy for yourself, please visit editions2wice!

An exhibition of the award-winning visual and performing arts publications Dance Ink and 2wice, featuring remarkable collaborations with dancers, choreographers, and photographers. the installation of magazines, books, photographs, and posters chronicles a unique 20-year partnership between publisher Patsy Tarr and designer Abbott Miller.

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2, 2009 6-8PM.

Location: AIGA National Design Center, 164 5th Ave. between 21st and 22nd Streets, New York.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11Am-6PM. Friday, 11AM-5PM. For more information, visit www.aiga.org.

Elizabeth Streb's "Catapult" is running until late May in Williamsburg; here's a local account of the show.