Merce Cunningham RIP

Another artist has died. Merce Cunning- ham was one of the most influent- ial and innova- tive choreographers of the twentieth century. He created more than 200 choreographic works in his lifetime. He was to dance, what a host of abstract expressionist artists were to painting and/or sculpture, but he did it on his own. A lover of the human body, he demanded his dancers to embrace movement and physicality for it's own value--unhindered by music, lighting or other theatrical trappings. His passing into ancestry on Sunday, July 25th, has forever marked an end to era in dance. In accordance with his will, his dance company will disband by July of 2011, but his influence will forever extend into the future.

Merce was a member of the cast of many who's ideas and influence pushed the rest of us into modernity. Too many people live life as serfs tending the soil of their meager lives never imagining for a moment the power of the present, let alone the possibility of the future. Merce's life expressed a profound desire to live as if the possible were the present, and the present was always reaching out for more...what a compelling witness to our potential.