dance writer

It's hard to believe that another dance icon has passed from our world. Well, that is to say that on the heels of the death of Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham has left his flesh body. But his amazing life and career will long impact the world beyond dance, beyond life as we know it. Not much can be said about Merce that he hasn't already told us. From my own outside perspective, I had one long-lasting impression of being in the same room as Merce. In the mid 1990's, he brought his company to perform in Madison, Wisconsin. Highlighting the concert was his exquisite Beach Birds at the end of which came the company bow. Merce entered the stage slowly and steadily emitting a presence that was unmatched by anyone in the room. Knowledge, confidence, clarity and calm radiated from his thin arthritic body. This was not an impostor or an understudy, this was Merce Cunningham. One of the few artists to fearlessly embrace the present and allow his work to evolve, Merce threw ...

Here’s a sample of the dance feast you can partake in for 2009-2010 in Chicago: At the Museum of Contemporary Art http://www.mcachicago.org/performances/index.php Nora Chipaumire with Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukarahundi October 1, 3, 4, 2009 Lucinda Childs DANCE October 15-17, 2009 Anna Halprin, Anne Collod and guests parades & changes, replays November 5, 7, 8, 2009 Akram Khan Company & National Ballet of China bahok February 26-28, 2010 The Seldoms with Fraser Taylor Marchland March 12-14, 2010 John Jasperse Company Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies April 9-11, 2010 At the Dance Center of Columbia College http://www.colum.edu/dance_center/performances.php Merce Cunningham Dance Company October 1, 2, 3, 2009 Lucky Plush Productions October 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 2009 Cloud Dance Theatre of Taiwan January 22, 23, 2010 Koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO February 4, 5, 6...

My first experience with Pina Bausch was through a German Dance festival in Chicago in the early 1980’s. I didn’t see her work performed live, but at the encouragement of my modern dance teacher, watched a film called “On Tour with Pina Bausch”. The film changed my perspective of dance forever. Until that point, I had only known dance as pure movement and only considered it from a technical standpoint. Bausch innovatively stretched the limits of dance technique and movement, but in a compelling theatrical way. Somehow she found a way to use the abstraction of dance vocabulary to tell concrete and powerful stories. And not only did Bausch influence countless choreographers, but she did so from a home base of the industrial Ruhrgebiet---a region comparable to Gary, Indiana in the U.S. Her influences will no doubt be felt for years to come. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html