One interesting aspect of much of Cunningham’s work is the lack of music in the rehearsal space.  I feel that as a dancer you are held much more accountable for the movement when you dance without music.  There are a lot of dancers I know who claim they don’t count or don’t like to count.  And I’ll admit it: I love to count; I’m a counter.  But to me counts are so much more experiential than they are quantifiable.  I’ve always consider timing as part of the movement, and can sometimes get frustrated by those who don’t operate in the same manner.

Part of what I love about Cunningham’s work is that it forces you to make the timing come first.  To constantly have that rhythm in your head, that is to be manufacturing it yourself rather than having the music manufacture it means that you are never really lost at any given moment;  Knowing the timing of the steps becomes an essential aspect of knowing the steps themselves.  You sink deeper into the rhythm rather than dancing on top of the music.

It also adds a lot more pressure as a dancer. The idea that you’re not dancing “to the music” means that there is nothing supporting you, and you are not performing a role that supports the music in terms of conventional aesthetics.  Rather you are a stand alone entity that exists by itself.  You can’t use the music as some sort of crutch to keep you going.  While this is somewhat frightening, in many ways it is much more liberating.  Because there is not that conventional 1:1 relationship between dancer and the music, the assumptions and expectations of how that relationship should function are cleared.  There is a lot of choreography that is so music-dominated, that the dance (in terms of use of space, movement quality, tempo, etc.) becomes secondary and subjugated to the music itself.  While dancing Roaratorio, I still find myself counting,  but I am also much more aware of how I interact with these other stylistic elements within the piece.  Fully integrating the timing of the piece into the work at the time you learn it means that the rhythm actually takes up less mental space and gives you more opportunity to focus on other aspects of the dance.