Friday, August 12, 2011
DANCE
Today's film was a BBC production of Merce Cunningham's
Points in Space (2007)
a work developed specifically for dancers and television cameras.
The accompaniment is a work by John Cage, composed separately along the same time frame to mesh with the timing of the dancers but not designed to illustrate or support the dance. The dance does not support the music.
In fact the dancers hear the score at their performance.
This is part of the random chance idea in the two men's art.
It is quite good. Oddly, the music and dance come together quite nicely. Very satisfying.
The first half of the film explains what is going on and shows the rehearsal and composition phase. Always a treat to hear Cage and Cunningham talk about their work and each other.
They were partners in life as well as collaborators in their work.
We saw Cunningham about 1995 before we moved here. It was quite thrilling. A solo performance.
This was a 4 out of Netflix5. Fruity British commentary aside.
