Sep 29, 2019
In this episode of Hear the Dance, host Silas Farley delves into the history of Merce Cunningham and Summerspace, which returns to the NYCB stage this fall for the first time in 20 years in celebration of Cunningham’s centennial. Farley sits down with Merce Cunningham Trust repetiteur Jean Freebury and former NYCB dancer and current Chairman of Faculty at the School of American Ballet Kay Mazzo to talk about working with the legendary choreographer, combining Cunningham with Balanchine technique, and how Merce Cunningham helped close the gap between modern dance and ballet. (47:05)
Music:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor
Stravinsky
IXION (1958) by Morton Feldman
All music performed by the New York City Ballet Orchestra.
Watch an excerpt of Summerspace provided by the Merce Cunningham Trust
Reference Books for Hear the Dance:
Summerspace
Merce Cunningham: Common Time by Besualdo, Bellow, Bither,
et al
Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years by David Vaughan
Merce Cunningham: The Modernizing of Modern Dance by Roger
Copeland
Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and
Cunningham by Carolyn Brown