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MERCE

We saw the Merce Cunningham Company dance about ten years ago.

Unannounced, Merce, himself, performed a solo piece towards the end. The experience of watching this high seventies man dancing in his blue leotard and bare feet is unforgetabble.

Merce' choreography is unique. No one has managed to cop it or do it directly and yet, he has had an indelible influence on modern dance.

Now, at Stanford, they are studying his work with performance, seminar, and other events for an entire year.

As part of this celebration, they are using computers to analyze the unique Cunningham movements: What Moves Merce. You may not be able to get into the site. It is pay to play or have an LATimes 7Day subscription. It is a stupid barrier. But the home site above has more than enough to engage you.

Here is a slice of the article since they won't let you get to it without paying. So dumb.

Palo Alto — At Stanford University the other day, Jonah Bokaer stood in a medical lab wearing nothing but a loose diaper and 50 small electronic sensors glued to his body.

Eight cameras recorded his every move in a process called motion capture that Hollywood relies on to turn actors into mummies and monsters. At Stanford, the technology is most often used to help doctors diagnose children's muscular and orthopedic disabilities.But not this time.

Bokaer is not a patient but a Merce Cunningham dancer, and the motion capture session was initiated to allow student scientists to analyze Cunningham choreography as part of a campus-wide, yearlong event called "Encounter Merce." That encounter peaked this week with panels, screenings, exhibitions, displays of class projects, student performances, two programs by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and a visit by the modern dance pioneer himself, now 85, from his home in New York.