Bitef

atmosferu koja odreduje novi aspekt karaktera prema pokretima koji ne bi bili prisutni da se izvode u tisini. Igra ima sličan efekat prl muzičkoj pratnji. Na primer, delo »Mesa« (Gordon Momma) koje prati balet »Mesto« ima vrlo ujeđnačenu prirodu. Ona ima dinamiku i ujednačenu gradaci ju, ali je njen ritam ametričan kao ritam oblaka u jednom vetrovitom danu. Koreografija »Mesta«, s druge strane, ima vrlo metrične ritmove koji se jednostavno mogu osatiti promatranjem. Prirodno, oni utiču na nafiin kako neko sluša muziku i prouzrokuju naročit i Izvanredan fenomen ametrično-metričkog slnkoplranja. Uzimajuói lu obzir ove faktore Cunninghamova fllozofija ustvari, ni je mnogo nerazumljiva. Ona može zahtevati više napora za gledaoca nego recimo koreografija Marthe Graham ili Pola Taylora, all je ona sva građena na jednostavnoj i elementamoj os novi. Danas, koreografi tipa Twyla Tharp-a počeli su da siede neke od Cunninghamovih gravila; all dok oni idu napred na svoj sopstveni nafiin, Merce Cunningham je u ođnosu na ostali svet u prednostl za pet Ili deset godina. U vreme šetnje po Mesecu, kružile su sale na Amerlfikom baletskom festivalu u Connecticut College-u da će prva stvar koju astronauti budu videi! prl izlasku iz kapsule biti Cunninghamova trupa koja bi izvodila »Canfield« baš u Moru Tišine. Ako neko ima takav genije za novotarije i izvanrednu disciplina da razvlje koreografiju na mesefievoj gravitaciji to bi sigurno bio Merce Cunningham.

he is where theater is at Merce Cunningham is concerned with movement the way a composer is concerned with sound, or a banker with money. To Cunningham movement is complete in itself he has no desire to translate it into literature, to tell stories, draw pictures or paint characters. He is not above suggesting the occasional joke, but even these jokes are really about movement itself, rather than banana skins. This urbane plotlessness, this movement for the sake of movement, this consideration of dance as a means of moving from point a to point B during the period of time C, makes Cunning-

ham interesting to watch. It also makes him hell to write about. Writing about plays is infinitely easier than writing about dancing, which is why so many dance critics myself included on occasion write about ballets as if they were plays. It is one of Cunningham’s many cardinal virtues that he will not permit this. To be sure, you can see a work like his desolate “Place,” or even “Winterbranch," and make out a literary mood a suggestion of the dissolution of cities and the frigid despair of the human condition. But anything you say will not truly be appropriate. Cunningham is one of those artists who leaves the distinct impression that if words could have expressed what he wanted to get across he would have used words in the first place. The other week Hilton Kramer asked me whether 1 had noticed that nowadays all movies were fundamentally about people making movies. At the time I couldn't say I had, yet on reflection there did seem a certain concern in movies about the actual material of moviemaking, so that a film such as “Alice’s Restaurant" is almost a home movie professionally edited. Cunningham’s dances have something of this same concern with the medium. Cunningham is fascinated with the way people move the look of one dance contrasted with another, a slow walk and a fast walk, a single figure silent and statuesque in the still center of whirlpool’s vortex, a sequential pattern suddenly broken, a balanced line momentarily distorted. Cunningham looks at people with uncommon observation some times looking for the limp beneath the skin, sometimes discerning when men walk like gods. His season, just ended at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, was a particularly joyful one for many reasons. The present Cunningham company is rather different from its predecessors. Traditionally in any battle over style or content, every modern-dancer worth has salt and his correctly documented exit visa from Martha Graham’s school would have had to have chosen content. Content was what modern-dance was all about, and style was for the birds and the ballet boys. Interestingly, our presentday moderndance leaders, Cunningham and Paul Taylor, have both failed to buy this bill of goods. To be pragmatic they were perhaps both forced to look at style and at technique by the upsurge of classic ballet. Classic ballet was so spectacular to watch that modern-dance, in sheer self-defense, was forced to become

more obviously engaging. When classic dancers jumped they went up and up into the air. Modern-dancers got the message indeed they even started to take classic classes to help bring the message home. When I first got to know the Cunningham company, six or seven years ago, it was full of very forceful personalities. With the exception of Carolyn Brown (who, personality or not, is still best regarded as one of the world’s loveliest dancers), these have all departed to be replaced by a new breed of very strong and very beautiful dancers. Girls like Valda Setterfield and Sandra Neels, boys like Chase Robinson. This is a new and very dance-conscious company. This new dance feeling of the Cunningham company, which I must say is performing extraordinarily well, was interestingly exploited by both of the new works, “Tread" and “Second Hand." Yet before discussing these two newcomers, perhaps a word on the revival of “Crises,” a work out of the repertory for many years, would be appropriate. I first saw “Crises" in London some years ago, when it was new. I forget precisely what 1 wrote about it, but 1 remember thinking it an unusually difficult work to comprehend. It is the character of the major artist to be before his time which is why the more conscientious critics puff so much trying to catch up—and now “Crises," with its rather engaging Gonion Nancarrow piano music and beguiling Robert Rauschenberg costumes, seems simple and lovely. In “Crises” it was a particular pleasure to welcome back, even if only as guest artist, Viola Färber, but the work itself now speaks for itself. Past complexities have been clarified, seemingly, by nothing but the passage of time, and the lithe beauty of the choreography, ilts spare, laconic elegance, is apparent to all. It represents but the impact of dance on a floor, the repercussions of movement and the implications of time and space within the special area of a theatrical event. What of the new works? “Tread" is a pleasant piece. Alert and understanding choreography given to dancers who know how to smile and, also, how not to smile. The ballet is dominated by 10 very breezy fans and 10 not quite so breezy dancers. It is all very charming and honest. The dances emerge from one another in a seamless pattern, and the decor essentially the fans by Bruce Nauman has a succint economy. This is a groovy, sophisticated piece. Classic ballet has always made profit

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