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Merce Cunningham Quotes

Powerful Merce Cunningham for Daily Growth

About Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an influential American choreographer and dancer who significantly shaped the landscape of contemporary dance in the 20th century. Born in Centralia, Washington, he developed a love for movement and nature from his upbringing, which later influenced his unique dance style. Cunningham studied at the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle before moving to New York City in 1939. There, he met renowned modern dancer Martha Graham, who encouraged him to pursue choreography. Influenced by the avant-garde arts scene in New York, Cunningham collaborated with artists like John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg, embracing chance operations, improvisation, and multidisciplinary art forms. One of his groundbreaking innovations was the "Cunningham Technique," which emphasized individuality, athleticism, and spatial awareness among dancers. In 1953, he formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which became renowned for its collaborative approach to dance-making. Some of his most influential works include "Suite for Five" (1954), "Events" (1962), and "Summerspace" (1958). These pieces challenged traditional notions of choreography, often involving complex patterns, non-linear narratives, and the integration of lighting and sound design. Cunningham's innovative approach to dance revolutionized the field, inspiring generations of dancers, choreographers, and artists. His legacy lives on through the Merce Cunningham Trust, which continues to promote his work and influence contemporary dance worldwide.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Chance is good and the dice cast is up to God."

This quote by Merce Cunningham suggests a belief in the unpredictable, random nature of life, often referred to as "chance." He posits that one should embrace this uncertainty, viewing it not as a lack of control but rather as an opportunity or destiny predetermined by a higher power. In essence, he encourages acceptance and trust in the unfolding of events, casting decisions and outcomes to a greater force – God. This perspective can inspire creativity, resilience, and adaptability in the face of life's challenges and uncertainties.

"I see dance being used as a vehicle for communicating something of deep emotional or social significance."

This quote by Merce Cunningham suggests that dance is not just a form of physical exercise, but also an art form capable of expressing deep emotions and important social messages. The choreography can serve as a means to convey significant experiences, ideas, or sentiments that resonate with audiences on an emotional level, fostering empathy, understanding, and engagement.

"Dance makes you strong from within – it gives you self-confidence, it gives you discipline, it gives you character."

This quote by Merce Cunningham emphasizes the transformative power of dance as a form of personal development. Dance serves to build inner strength by fostering self-confidence, instilling discipline, and shaping one's character. Through dance, individuals develop resilience, emotional maturity, and a sense of purpose, making them better equipped to handle life's challenges with grace and determination.

"It's not what you do once in a while, it's what you do day in and day out that makes the difference."

This quote emphasizes consistency and regularity as keys to success or progress. Instead of relying on occasional extraordinary efforts, it is important to maintain daily dedication and commitment towards one's goals or tasks. The small actions done consistently day after day will ultimately lead to significant results over time.

"I think of my dances as events to be experienced in time rather than things to be looked at as objects."

This quote by Merce Cunningham emphasizes his perspective on dance as an immersive, temporal experience rather than a static, visual artifact. He envisioned dance not merely as something to observe passively, but as an active engagement with the flow of time, inviting audiences to become part of the dynamic, fleeting moment rather than detached observers of a finished product. This perspective aligns with a more experiential and interactive approach to art, where the focus is on the process, movement, and the connection between dancer, audience, and performance space.

My dance classes were open to anybody, my only stipulation was that they had to come to the class every day.

- Merce Cunningham

Every Day, Anybody, Classes, Dance Classes

Dancing has a continuity of its own that need not be dependent upon either the rise or fall of sound or the pitch and cry of words. Its force of feeling lies in the physical image, fleeting or static.

- Merce Cunningham

Dancing, Fleeting, Image, Static

What really made me think about space and begin to think about ways to use it was Einstein's statement that there are no fixed points in space. Everything in the universe is moving all the time.

- Merce Cunningham

Think, Made, Use, Fixed

You can get fixed ideas, and it can get restrictive. So, I try to put myself in a precarious position.

- Merce Cunningham

Myself, Get, Restrictive, Fixed

The legs and arms can be a revelation of the back, the spine's extensions.

- Merce Cunningham

Back, Legs, Revelation, Extensions

Very often, you did something slow with your arm, for example, and something rapid with your feet - but the arm had to do something large against this - and this set up a kind of opposition.

- Merce Cunningham

Feet, Very, Set, Arm

It is upon the length and breadth and span of a body sustained in muscular action that dance invokes its image.

- Merce Cunningham

Image, Muscular, Breadth, Span

Fortunately, dance has been what's interested me all my life. So whether I am faced with incapacities or not, it still absorbs me.

- Merce Cunningham

My Life, Been, Still, Faced

All these dismal things that are going on in the world - the isolation and the sickness and the governments and the pollution - it's so frightful, over the whole world.

- Merce Cunningham

Sickness, Over, Going, Dismal

The use of chance operations opened out my way of working. The body tends to be habitual. The use of chance allowed us to find new ways to move and to put movements together that would not otherwise have been available to us. It revealed possibilities that were always there except that my mind hadn't seen them.

- Merce Cunningham

Possibilities, Been, Use, Revealed

Movement is expressive. I've never denied that. I don't think there's such a thing as abstract dance.

- Merce Cunningham

Think, Never, Abstract, Denied

You do not separate the human being from the actions he does or the actions which surround him, but you see what it is like to break these actions up in different ways, to allow passion - and it is passion - to appear for each person in his own way.

- Merce Cunningham

Own, Allow, Separate, Surround

I began to do this thing I do of giving myself a class every day, and trying to experiment and push further. I don't mean to say I knew everything, because I didn't, but I would do what I knew and then push beyond that and see what else I could find.

- Merce Cunningham

Every Day, Giving, Beyond, Push

I use the computer as a tool. Like chance or the camera or the other tools I've used, it can open my eye to other ways of seeing or of making dances. It's not simply to do a trick.

- Merce Cunningham

Chance, Other, Making, Tool

Cage always wanted to know what my structure was, if I had one. I often did have some sense of the time structure. Then he'd make a different one for the music.

- Merce Cunningham

Some, Always, Had, Structure

My process has changed over the years. I'd say it has been enhanced.

- Merce Cunningham

Process, Over, Been, Enhanced

In using chance operations, the mind is enriched.

- Merce Cunningham

Chance, Mind, Using, Operations

I began to fear that the Graham work was not in lots of ways sufficient for me. I suppose it came about from looking at other dancing and being involved with the ballet - something about the air and the way she thought about dancing.

- Merce Cunningham

Dancing, Thought, Other, Sufficient

I have always had this thing about moving around, and that has just remained, regardless of my physical changes. That feeling about it has never changed.

- Merce Cunningham

Always, About, Remained, Regardless

I think anything can feed you, depending on the way you look at it or listen to it.

- Merce Cunningham

Think, I Think, Depending, Feed

I don't like teaching, because it's so repetitive - especially the beginning of class, which is always more or less the same and has to be carefully done. It's tedious. But I know it's necessary for dancers to keep working on technique.

- Merce Cunningham

Beginning, Dancers, Tedious, Repetitive

Our emotions are constantly being propelled by some new face in the sky, some new rocket to the moon, some new sound in the ear, but they are the same emotions.

- Merce Cunningham

Sky, New, Some, Ear

I think the thing that we agreed to so many years ago, actually, was that the music didn't have to support the dance nor the dance illustrate the music, but they could be two things going on at the same time.

- Merce Cunningham

Two, I Think, So Many Years, Years Ago

My work always comes from the same source - from movement. It doesn't necessarily come from an outside idea, though the source can be something small or large that I've seen, often birds or other animals. The seeing can then provoke the imagining.

- Merce Cunningham

Small, Other, Idea, Provoke

I was told that I had to give grades to the students, which I wasn't particularly interested in doing.

- Merce Cunningham

Doing, Give, Which, Grades

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