More Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham's piece Rainforest was choreographed in 1968. The poor quality of the old video is a trade off for the privilege of actually seeing Cunningham himself dance. The set (giant, Mylar pillows filled with helium) were from an Andy Warhol instillation …

Martha Graham Primitive Mysteries

Primitive Mysteries really struck me more than any other Graham piece. The work is so early, made in 1931 just two years after her poignant, yet honestly elementary, Heretic. Primitive Mysteries in comparison shows unbelievable maturity and development over such a short …

Dancing on the edge... from the archives of the American Dance Festival

Semi-coherent thoughts listed by peice:

Paul Taylor's Cloven Kingdom (1991)
So un-Taylor style (beautiful Taylor runs and high gorgeous extensions). This piece had almost no turnout, no extensions, and no port de bras. The movements seemed primitive, ceremonially …

Trisha Brown Early Works 1966-1967

This DVD is definitely one of the best collections of dance films I have ever watched. It contains 18 videos (some excerpts) of Brown's early choreographic escapades. At this point I've only watched the first half or so, cause it's super long, but it's enough to …

Trisha Brown videos

I just watched Glacial Decoy, which I thought I'd seen before, but if I ever had I really hadn't payed any attention, because everything I was seeing seemed so new to me. Well, as new as any Trisha Brown work is from any other. After one viewing of anything (and I …

Merce Cunningham videos

I just watched Merce Cunningham's Beach Birds for Camera. Awesome, and mind-opening. Cunningham work are great for video dance. The camera frame allows for such intense depth of field, and in the group sections it is so visually interesting to have someone in the …