Points in Space - Merce Cunningham Dance Company / Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Elliot Caplan

After all these decades of, books, discussion and vibrant example of the import of the avant-garde, where it has become institutionalized we still find those perplexed and angered by John Cage and Merce Cunningham, their working methods,spirit, artistic affinities, and expanding perceptive means of what can be art.In art, music or dance all there is,for the modern, or post-modern is the frame,(the stage, or the musical work) the duration of something, you have tones that are High or Middle or Low,Coloured (a Flute, A Cello) Loud or Soft,Short, Long or Not-So-Long, or Very Long, Textured,Thorny, Shaped, or Un-Shaped,Wistful, OverWhelming,or Passive. In Dance you have Motion, Fast Slow, variegated,clean, threadbare,lyrical or convoluted. When you see the Cunningham Dancers Dance you can sense that their movements comes from someplace,the repertoire associated with Martha Graham still exists here like a "ghost", "spectre".And Cunningham's fascinating lifeworld is to see how the human body can move? what is motion?what it can be? and visually it is always deeply absorbing, what is dancing together? It is far from improvised as most/may think, It is highly structured and precise.And there is a great deal of discretion imparted within the working out or the dance. The revolution of the 20th Century was to make all the various dimensions in art, motion, time, durations, timbre, sounds, words, all independent,so they can become something magical, or simply interesting, yet they all do meet someplace. Cage and Cunningham having been honing their/these methods since the early Sixties,(largely ignored at first by so-called savy NYCity critics) when they gave their first tour of Europe in a Volkswagon Bus altogether."Points in Space" is actually not as experimental as other dances I've seen as the earth shattering "Winterbranch",or "Rainforest" in the Cunningham repertoire. I found this VHS deeply lyrical,suggesting something very old, primitive, yet civilized, beautiful in the traditional sense, with fine elegant imparted lines,shaped, coordinated moments, phrases,solos, duets, and trios, then the entire company enters with punctuations.There is also elegant counterpoint of moments with a foreground interests and a more accompanimental background quartet of dancers. There are then personalities"spirits" "energies" that do emerge from the company.You can almost call them poetic. But quietly, not wanting to interrupt the seamless affect/effect of the dance of others. Merce then appears toward the end of the dance, deeply limited from age, yet deeply inspirational in that he moves, He has developed more an interesting use of hand an arm swishes into the air, shaping the space of the air around his body. Sharp, fast quick motions with the arms.The fact that the dance was videotaped I though was the least interesting aspect of it.Cage's music/timbral accompaniment entitled "Voiceless Essay" is simply his voice that was permuted through the computer of consonants(he consciously took out the vowels) from the texts of Thoreau,after he selected items from his writings through Mesostics, that's a spine like word, running down the page vertically to help "guide" the words. We hear whispers, hisses, sighs, wind timbres, ellipses, glides. It is beautiful it gives the dance a sense of rest, of repose, actually, deeply moving

Points in Space is not the most recent of Merce Cunningham's work (for which you should see "A Lifetime of Dance") but it represents another example of how Cunningham and Cage seized upon and experimented with any and every new medium that might bring their respective arts to a wider discerning audience. In this case, television.Both emerged from the avant garde that vigorously swept America in the 1950s, (yielding such other notorieties as Kenton/Rob Graettinger of "City of Glass" fame). Both worked tirelessly to move forward from the stagnant position their art wallowed in. Both made demands of musicians and dancers hitherto unknown - and one might particularly highlight the inordinate difficulties posed by Cunningham whose choreography took in indeterminism and improvisation.This video is an intriguing view of the way Cunningham worked - appropriate because he was quick to seize on video as a viable medium to present dance. (Much later he was to collaborate with IBM on computer choreography software). I believe the programme was originally made for the BBC.This video is definitely not for the person unable to embrace the avant garde and ensuing artistic upheaval! For those who can appreciate its cultural importance, its message (which is always greater than the sum of the parts) this is a must. Cunningham and Cage will long exert their influence on Art in ways that are now probably taken for granted. This film is a well-documented moment in that process.

Merce Cunningham, and particulary John Cage, have nothing to say. This work is an exercize in nihilism; it means nothing. Cage wants his "music" to be uninfluenced by him. Why write then? The "music" is a series of words minus vowels, manipulated by computer to be void of any suggestion of real words or sounds, let alone any musicality.The music and choreography, per Cage in the interviews included, were written with no knowledge of the other. This is not hard to believe.I bought the tape to use in a Survey of the Humanities course. I will probably use it, or part of it, but as an example of bad modern art. These old men in this film are fraudulent. Pitiful.There are two positives. One, it shows the difficulties of filming dance. Movement seen on a stage vs on a screen are point-of-view difficult. Two, the film accurately reflects parts of the contemporary art world: Devoid of meaning and happy to thrash around in excrement.

This is all very good choreography very much based in ballet and not digressing far from classical dance. John Cage's music however sounds like me snoring. Since the two artists collaborate by chance and the dancers never hear the music until they perform the piece I suggest you turn the sound off and take a chance on playing some music you like while watching the dancers. I tried it out with some music by Scriabin orchestrated by Nemtin called Nuances now unavailable unfortunately and it worked pretty well.

Quite challenging cheography recorded at the BBC.