Annihilation, the first step towards self-definition.

(http://ydtp.commons.yale.edu/2012/02/11/you-now-have-four-minutes-and-thirty-three-seconds-to-read-this/ Continued.

« Immanence in Cunningham’s work is about occupying space, embodying your internal music. In this process the spark of self-definition brings the dancer into existence… »)

“Dance is an art in space and time. The object of the dancer is to obliterate that.” Merce Cunningham.

As an emblem of an original and symbolic universe, Merce Cunningham is not only an artist and choreographer but also a philosopher who approaches his works as existential enquiries: the purpose of Dance being self-definition. However, before achieving this, the road is long and the Dancer, choreographer and spectator must progress through different steps.  For Merce Cunningham it seems as though the first step towards self-definition is deconstruction and annihilation.

Merce Cunningham’s choreographies are characterized by the simplicity of movement, preciseness in rhythm and apparent lack of emotion and of a storyline. In this simplification of Dance, Cunningham is striving to represent movement in its purest form. Cunningham, it seems, wanted his art to be direct and without flourish and adornment. Through his celebration of fundamentals, Merce Cunningham presents simplicity as the path to purity, which is itself the promise to existential and artistic understanding.

In a Cunningham piece the dancer is stripped and his Dance is dismembered. I have more than once felt “exposed” as I perform Roaratorio. I feel uncovered and unmasked because I can no longer hide behind acting out a role, an emotion guided by music… behind an imposture. Jennifer Goggans described to us late representations where the dancers performed on square stages mounted so that the public could walk around and take in every angle of the piece. There is in such a choice of scenic organization a sort of dissection of the choreography and of the dancers’ movements.

Achieving authenticity and originality is presented as a necessity. Indeed in putting aside all ornaments the Dancer is able to move away from his epistemological barriers. These disabled him to see through to the foundations of his dance, and, simultaneously, to the very core of his person. In being asked to perform without “fluff” I managed to empty my mind from distractions and be simply preoccupied with what I am realizing and doing in the present moment. With no story to tell, no expressions to imitate I am able to concentrate on nothingness and on everything at the same time: being simply present. Cunningham structures his creations around the fundamentals of dance: time and space, which metaphysically define existence. So Cunningham’s purified form of dance gives me “that single fleeting moment when you feel alive” as he so well said.

Indeed, when dancing with Cunningham’s method I move away from everything that is superficial, in some way it is as annihilation. And it is then that the magic operates. I go from “nothingness” to being brought into existence by my movement. I am able to become one with my movement and embody my Dance, it is a beautiful and very intense sensation: Meg Harper described this as one of her reasons for joining Cunningham’s Company.

In committing to this detoxified form of Dancing and in concentrating on the vividness of the present moment, I have started to feel aware of how I function. It is as though deconstructing and simplifying my movements pushes me to analyze myself through a clearer gaze.

Merce Cunningham has given to my dancing a whole new importance. I have now adopted an introspective approach and am slowly understanding how dancing will help me blossom and define my individuality.

“The daily discipline, the continued keeping of the elasticity of the muscles, the continued control of the mind over the body’s actions, […] that the mind, body and spirit function as one.” *Merce Cunningham*

… To be continued.