Movies: Merce Cunningham

The quixotic journey of Nam June Paik, one of the most famous Asian artists of the 20th century, who revolutionized the use of technology as an artistic canvas and prophesied both the fascist tendencies and intercultural understanding that would aris...

This 56-minute documentary on America's most controversial and unique composer manages to cover a great many aspects of Cage's work and thought. His love for mushrooms, his Zen beliefs and use of the I Ching, and basic bio details are all explained i...

In his book "1984", George Orwell saw the television of the future as a control instrument in the hands of Big Brother. Right at the start of the much-anticipated Orwellian year, Paik and Co. were keen to demonstrate satellite TV's ability to serve p...

The iconic Merce Cunningham and the last generation of his dance company is profiled in Alla Kovgan's 3D documentary, through recreations of his landmark works and archival footage of Cunningham, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and more....

Merce Cunningham choreographed “Changing Steps” in 1973. In its original form “Changing Steps” consisted of a solo dance for each member of the company, 3 trios, 2 quartets and 2 quintets, which could be performed in order, and separately or overlapp...

Cunningham said of his choreography for "Beach Birds", “It is all based on individual physical phrasing. The dancers don’t have to be exactly together. They can dance like a flock of birds, when they suddenly take off.” A work for eleven dancers, the...

Paradoxically described by Walter Sorell as "a tender lullaby of love" and by Richard Buckle as "cold and menacing, the courtship of the Macbeths," Night Wandering is a duet reminiscent of snowy landscapes. Cernovitch designed the original costumes: ...

A compilation of avant-garde artwork and talent of the mid to late 20th century hosted by Ryuichi Sakamoto....

Merce by Merce by Paik is a two-part tribute to choreographer Merce Cunningham and artist Marcel Duchamp. The first section, “Blue Studio: Five Segments”, is a work of video-dance produced by Merce Cunningham and videomaker Charles Atlas. The second ...

Atlas' 2013 film Exchange is based on the 1978 dance piece of the same name by legendary dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham. Atlas created the newly completed film from never-before-seen footage that he shot in 1978 and that was only recently redi...

A multi-character dance drama...

This film includes important examples of the Robert Rauschenberg's diverse and extraordinary accomplishments, tracing his development from his student years and his earliest experiments to a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in Ne...

Experimental composer John Cage tours Europe with The Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1966....

Thirty years after the world premiere of legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham's August Pace, the original cast members gather in a New York City studio for the first time to teach their roles to a younger generation. Their reunion is a grand expe...

“Westbeth” was Cunningham’s first video collaboration with Charles Atlas, and the first video project to be made at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio on the eleventh floor of Westbeth....

A history of the work of Merce Cunningham....

A feature length film from acclaimed dance choreographer Merce Cunningham....

John Cage’s original concept of Ocean, in 1991, was for a dance to be performed in a circular space, with the audience surrounding the dancers, and the musicians (112 of them) surrounding the audience. The last performance was in the Rainbow Quarry i...

Performed like a series of vaudeville scenes that overlap, Antic Meet consists of ten playful and comedic numbers. The curtains opened with Cunningham moving among the other dancers as a clown-like figure "who falls in love with a society whose rules...

Observational documentary about the Merce Cunningham Dance Company rehearsing throughout the summer of 1967 in New York....