Customer Reviews

Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance [VHS]

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It has always amazed me how little attention Merce Cunningham receives in film and home media - this and a couple of VHS tapes is all we have - a crime in my view. All right - if you're expecting Swan Lake or Coppelia, or balk at 'tunes' you can't whistle, then Merce Cunningham may take some work.

But no amount of avant garde can disguise the sheer beauty of his choreography - in fact, beauty is a poor attempt to describe something for which there are no words. It has a sensuality and immediacy missing from classical ballet while being every bit as graceful; and possibly more demanding in that a degree of improvisation is often required of the dancers. Desperately trying to avoid clichés, if ever anyone has realised the human form and movement as art, here he is.

This biopic is laden with excerpts from the past fifty years (including the famous one based on a jumper with 5 sleeves and no neck opening!) and it is a fabulous introduction to this intriguing and warm-hearted character and those around him.

All in all a gorgeous disc. Is there a downside? Yes - it lasts only 90 minutes and I could happily watch excerpts twice the length. And may I add a plea to the producers - to make more of Merce Cunningham's work available on DVD. It is a vital part of American, perhaps WESTERN culture - and thoroughly enjoyable.

This 90-minute film by Charles Atlas[ who also directed "Hail the New Puritan" (1986), "Put Blood in the Music" (1989) and "Son of Sam and Delilah" (1991) ] was created as a co-production of seventeen international television stations. It was conceived for the 16:9 aspect ratio format, but will appear in 'letterbox' on a standard 4:3 ratio television screen.

"Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance" functions as an artistic biography of this now legendary choreographer. The first fifty minutes of the film detail Mr. Cunningham's life from his birth in Centralia, Washington in 1919 to the early 1950's and the founding of the Cunningham Dance Company, after a summer of experimentation at Black Mountain College.

Archival film and video footage provides documentation of approximately forty-five different dance works. The footage is shown in edit lengths of between 5 and 20 seconds duration. These excerpts are then intercut with the comments of friends, family members, dancers, composers, art critics and also of Merce himself, who provides anecdotes at each stage within the chronology of the biography.

The audio that accompanies these dance works, as an atmosphere or perhaps as a weather event enveloping the performances, was created by at least seventeen different avant-garde composers. These include founding Cunningham Dance Company member and musician John Cage, electronics guru David Tudor, the minimalist LaMonte Young and downtown NYC performance artist Meredith Monk.

In the film, we find that Mr. Cunningham draws his inspiration from movements of any kind, including those of animals, birds and the ordinary movements of people involved in a range of typical activities. He feels that dancers live not just to do these movements, but to 'exist' in performance and to come to realize their own unique identity through the act of dance.

The film closes with an extended discussion of the work "Biped"(1999), which describes the incorporation of three dimensional computer graphics into the context of a live electronic music and dance event.

"Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance" will serve well as a wonderful media resource for fans of contemporary art.

i am a dance teacher who works with students at many different levels, and this video can be helpful for all sorts of classes... this is a great historical resource, and it does a good job of sampling cunningham's work. it also explains his significance to dance history and development. be warned that there is more talk and commentary than performance, so if you want choreography you may be disappointed. i recommend this dvd to dancers, dance teachers, dance historians, dance critics (who often know very little about the work upon which they are thrusting their commentary), and anyone else interested in modern dance history, collaborative processes, and avant garde music.

After having seen points in space a few months ago I was absolutely itching to find more on Cunningham. The DVD is quite wonderful with enough excerpts from many of Merce's dances. It it nicely edited and makes sense time-wise. There is adequate time with collaborators, friends, dancers and Merce himself. For the lovers of the avant-garde and for lovers of dance this is truly one DVD to own and watch over and over again. It flows beautifully. I wish that there was a section where one could watch full segments for various pieces even if I had to pay more money for the DVD.

An Excellent resource for the dance teacher at any level. Of specific importance is old film and video footage translated to the DVD medium. Very Broad overview of his work and company-an excellent starting place to present his work and contributions to the field of dance and collaborative arts.

Background.

A few years ago, I worked in the City of London, opposite the Barbican Centre. One evening after work I walked across the road to it and - by chance and not knowing what to expect - saw Merce Cunningham's "Biped". I loved it. I thought that it was wonderful, magical. It enchanted me. I loved it so much that I went back to see it again. Whenever Merce Cunningham's dance company returned subsequently to London, I went to watch.

My opinion of this DVD?

I think that this documentary about Merce Cunningham's life and work is excellent. It includes many film/video clips of his dances, including "Biped", and is driven by commentary from both people with whom he has worked and Merce Cunningham himself.

I've watched many dance documentary DVDs about specific artists, and they tend to either wander off course with too many interviews, or cut the dance excerpts up so horribly that you can't get any sense of what the dances really are like. This DVD makes neither of those mistakes, and is so packed with fine videos and fantastic information that it rates in my book as the very best dance artist documentary ever made. As a bonus there is a lot of information about John Cage as well.

The title pretty much says it all. With most dance videos selling for upwards of a hundred dollars this Merce Cunningham dvd is a steal.