The End: The Merce Cunningham Dance Company Takes its Final Bow (The Nation)

An older piece, on the closing of the Merce Cunningham Company and what it means for the future of the Cunningham rep, from The Nation.

Here’s a short excerpt:

“How had it come to this? The Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which since 1953 has fundamentally altered some of the most basic precepts of dance…is not a victim of the crummy economy or of evolving tastes. Nor is it the casualty of a struggle over ownership of the repertory, which was nearly the case with Martha Graham’s troupe. Cunningham, the company’s founder and raison d’être, died in the summer of 2009 at 90, one month after the death of Pina Bausch, the director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal. But whereas Bausch’s dancers are soldiering on, Cunningham’s company has come to a calculated end, one formulated over several years by the company’s administration and board, approved by the choreographer and announced one month before his death.”