Monday, July 27, 2009

I Never Got These Guys


So Merce Cunningham, a HUGE name in dance, has died.
.
He was a very "new wave" dancer who explored movement, stutter and jerks after finishing with traditional training. He thought that the dancers, the audience and choreographer should be surprised.
.
You, dear friend, will not be surprised to know that I did not like it.
.
Look, I am all about the ART, but Merce - in his later years when I saw him - was about Merce. (Plus I don't think the choreographer should be surprised. I mean if they can learn a routine on So You Think You Can Dance, Merce's Troupe of happy harpies could learn it!)
.
John Cage, his musical partner and life partner (I just found out - who knew?) was also very artsy fartsy - with music that was not lyrical.
.
I spent one of the the longest afternoons EVER watching the Merce Cunningham group "dance" to Phillip Glass. I remember 2 (of the like 216) pieces.
.
Oh come on, you know Philip Glass. The composer of Koyaanisqatsi, which starts as haunting, but wears out it's welcome long before the movie is finished. (KOY anna SCOTSKI... KOY anna SCOTSCKI.. over and over and over)
.
Anyway, at this show I saw at UCLA, in the first piece, a group of Merce Cunningham "dancers" flung themselves willy nilly as the Phillip Glass "score" filled with the sound of breaking dishes. Bad enough. But after this and another few "dances", came the first act finale.
.
The "finale" consisted of Philip Glass' score of sounds of the city (air-horns, helicopters, mumbling conversation and a car crash) and Merce - the Master himself - coming out and sitting in a chair, looking, with a half cocked head, offstage right. Twenty minutes he sat there, and we sat watching, and women behind me were marveling at the beauty of it and I just had to get out of there.
.
Merce finally gave up before me, left to riotous applause, and the back of my head as I scurried out to pee and flee home. I was able to resist future requests to accompany friends to a Merce Cunningham show, master or no.