JPJ Score Used To Accompany Dance Show

[kenog]

The Times UK Oct 18, 2010; p. 13

The dance work

This is your last chance to jump on the Merce Cunningham bandwagon. The choreographer -- a true one-off -- died last year, aged 90. Soon, the company he led for half a century will cease to exist. But first there is one last visit to London that will give the non-believers a chance to discover how wrong they were about the father of American modern dance.

More than once in his estimable career Cunningham was likened to the emperor and his new clothes. In the early days, audiences couldn't relate to his hardcore aesthetic. No plot, no logic, no emotional expression, not even any musical inspiration: where were these dances coming from? And why would anyone want to watch them? Like his partner, the composer John Cage, Cunningham espoused random creativity, making dances that were determined by the toss of a coin, the roll of the I Ching. Design, music and choreography met in performance. If they achieved harmony, great; if they didn't, who cared? But as the years went by, we woke up to the dazzling clarity of his dances, so pristine in concept and so lively in their unpredictability. So here comes his last work, Nearly Ninety, accompanied by (but not set to!) a score from John Paul Jones, of Led Zeppelin, and the indie hipsters Sonic Youth. Bring an open mind.

Debra Craine

Nearly Ninety is at the Barbican from October 26 to 30

[kenog]

Dance Umbrella 2010

The Times (London); Oct 2, 2010; Donald Hutera; p. 21 Full Text:

(Copyright © Times Newspapers Limited 2010)

A trio of heavyweight American choreographers dominate the 32nd edition of the UK's biggest annual celebration of contemporary dance. Stephen Petronio, fiftysomething and still a creative firebrand, kicks off with I Drink The Air Before Me (Barbican, Oct 5-6). with a score created by the hot-shot composer Nico Muhly. The festival centrepiece is a tribute to Trisha Brown (Oct 15-19, Southbank and Tate Modern) that encompasses film, installation and juicy live performances. If Brown is the queen of downtown New York's avant-garde dance scene, it was the late, great Merce Cunningham who paved the way for her reign. Premiered a few months before his death at age 90 in 2009, Nearly Ninety (Barbican, Oct 26-30) is a purportedly enthralling swansong, blending dance, design, video and live music composed by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones.