CCN – Ballet de Lorraine: Histoires sans Histoire(s) - A Century of Merce Cunningham

Over his long and successful career Merce Cunningham choregraphed more than 150 pieces and more than 800 events. He collaborated with many artists; his collaboration with John Cage had the most influence on his practice.

CCN – Ballet de Lorraine will lend an insight into the depths of his creative genius. The first two pieces are Sounddance and RainForest, and the third, For Four Walls, is a re-created fragment that bears his “fingerprints”. Sounddance could easily be considered one of Cunningham’s most beloved pieces. It was created in 1973 as a fast and vigorous “organized chaos”.  Composer David Tudor wrote a powerful and driving score that provides the perfect energetic accompaniment to Cunning-ham’s fast paced choreography. The title for RainForest came from Cunningham’s childhood mem-ories of the Northwest, and the rainforest in the Olympic Peninsula. It differed from Cunningham’s other pieces in that, with the exception of Cunningham, each of the six dancers performed his or her role, then left the stage and never returned. Andy Warhol agreed to let Cunningham use his installa-tion Silver Clouds – a number of Mylar pillows filled with helium, so that they floated freely in the air. The original dance play Four Walls was a creation that incorporated text and choreography by Merce Cunningham with a score for solo piano by John Cage. After its premiere, and only perfor-mance in 1944, the piece was lost and forgotten, although in the late 1970s the pianist Richard Bunger rediscovered the score among Cage’s manuscripts. We see For Four Walls not as a re-enactment of the lost original, but as a situation that will allow for its own history and our history with Merce to be reflected in. On this situation, the “fingerprints” have been left by Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley, the creative duo of CCN – Ballet de Lorraine.