What has happened to the legacy of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, now that their iconic companies have gone?
Martha Graham has been gone for more than two decades, but the company she founded has outlived her and continues to evolve and perform. It has faced considerable obstacles and struggles, but has persevered.
By contrast, the end of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company was pre-ordained shortly before Cunningham’s death in July, 2009. Earlier that year, the company announced a “Legacy Plan”: while the Merce Cunningham Trust would continue to license and safeguard his repertory, the 13-member company would embark on a final two-year world tour – and then cease to exist.
Many have questioned this decision, and the loss of this exemplary troupe has been keenly felt. A primary impetus for closing down the company was that it had always existed to perform the ingenious, groundbreaking new works that Cunningham produced with such astonishing regularity, right up to his 90th birthday. It was, in effect, a laboratory for his fertile, exploratory imagination. With no new works forthcoming, this primary raison d’être would no longer exist. However, the extensive Legacy Tour, which concluded in December, 2011, showcased a generous array of major revivals with the dancers achieving superlative new levels of accomplishment. The sudden ending, however carefully planned, left a void.
The contrast between the paths taken by these two organisations could not be greater. . . .
This is an excerpt from an article by our New York correspondent Susan Reiter in the Feb/Mar issue of Dance Australia. OUT NOW!
