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THE DANCE CENTER PRESENTS MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY

50th Anniversary Season Includes First Major Concerts at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance

CHICAGO- The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, celebrating 30 years as Chicago’s leading presenter of contemporary dance, is proud to present Merce Cunningham Dance Company, celebrating its 5Oth anniversary and returning to Chicago for the first time in nearly four years. The November 14 and 15 perfonnances are the first full-evening dance concerts at Chicago’s Joan w. and Irving B. Rams Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph.

Both exceptional programs feature signature works and new pieces that continue to defme the art form, involving Cunningham collaborators who have broken ne,w;ground in the musical and visual arts.

Program A (Nov. 14) includes Interscape (2001), with music by John Cage, decor and costumes by Rober Rauschenberg and lighting by Aaron Copp, and Fluid Canyas (2002), with music by John King; decor by Marc Downie, Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkaf; costumes by James Hall; and lighting by James F. Ingalls.

ProgramB (Nov. 15) includes Pond Way (1998), with music by Brian Eno, decor by Roy Lichtenstein, costumes by Suzanne Gallo and lighting by David Covey; Native Green (1985), with music by John King, decor and costumes by William Anastsi and lighting reconstructed by Aaron Copp; and How to Pass, Kick, Fall and Run (1965), with music by John Cage and lighting by Beverly Ernmons, and featuring various text excerpts read live by Cunning1lam and archivist David Vaughan. Both programs will include a 50th anniversary film collage by Cunningbam and Charles Atlas.

As part of the Cunningham company’s engagement, The Dance Center will present Conversations on Cunningham, an in-depth symposium exploring legendary choreographer Cunningham ‘ s singular impact on contemporary dance. The fIrst such symposium on Cunningham by an American college or university since 1989, Conversations on Cunningham will include conversations involving dancers, choreographers and Cunningham collaborators; a film screening introduced by Cunningham archivist David Vaughan; and master classes taught by former and current Cunningharn Company dancers.

A highlight of the symposium will be a MinEvent performance by Columbia dance students on November 15, the first ever licensed, by the Cunningham Dance Foundatjon. “Presented without intermission, this Event consists of complete dances; excerpts of dances from the repertory and often new sequences arranged for the particular performance and place, with the possibility of several separate activities happening at the same time-to allow not so much an evening of dances as the experience of dance,” according to Merce Cunningham.

Symposium events that also are open to non-registrants include a DanceMasters technique class taught by Robert Swinston on Thursday, November 13, from 6-8 p.m at The Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Aye. DanceMasters is a series of community master classes presented by The Dance Center’s Community Outreach and Education office in partnership with the Old Town School of Folk Music, Links Hall and Lou Conte Dance Studio. Achnission is $15. The Dance Center also is offering In Their Own Words, a new series of pre-performance conversations with Dance Center guest artists; Dance Center Chair Bonnie Brooks will talk with interested audience members on “How to Watch a Cunningham Concert” Friday and Saturday, November 14 and 15, at 7 p.m at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company came into being in 1953, when Cunningham took a group of dancers who had been working with him—including Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Remy Charlip and Paul Taylor-to Black Mountain College in North Carolina, joined by music director John Cage and musician David Tudor. Since tllen he has choreographed more than 160 works for the company. A world tour in 1964 was a turning point in the company’s history, as critics and audiences alike recognized the importance of the work of Cunningham, Cage and their associates. Since then the company’s annual schedule has included domestic and international tours and seasons in New York. Among the noteworthy collaborators have been visual artists Robert Rauschenberg (resident designer, 1954-64), Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol and Robert Morris. Since the 1970s Cunillngham has choreographed a number of video-and filmdances in collaboration with Charles Atlas and with Elliot Caplan.

Before founding his company, Cunningham was a soloist in the company of the legendary Martha Graham. He began choreographing independently in the 1940s; since then he has choreographed for New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet, and his work is in the repertories of numerous ballet and modern dance companies around the world, among tllem the Boston Ballet; Charleroi/Danses; Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm; Ohio Ballet; Pacific Northwest Ballet; PennsyIvania Ballet; Rambert Dance Company, London; Repertory Dance Theatre, Salt Lake City; and Theatre du Silence, France. He has collaborated on two books about his work and is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships for choreography, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and numerous awards aIld honors, includillg the National Medal of Arts in 1990.

He received the Arts and Business Council Kitty Carlisle Hart award in November 2002 and the Edward MacDowell Medal in Interdisciplinary Art in August 2003.

Celebrating its 3Oth Anniversary Season, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, named Chicago’s Best Dance Theatre by Chicago magazine, is the city’s leading presenter of contemporary dance, showcasing artists of regional, national and international significance. Programs of The Dance Center are supported, in part, by The Joyce Foundation, Association of Performing Arts Presenters Arts .

Partners Program, Alphawood Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Essex Inn, Chicago Public Radio 91.5 PM, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Altria Group, Inc., Prince Charitable Trusts, Sara Lee Foundation, The Japan Foundation Performing Arts JAPAN Program, New England Foundation for the Arts, Heartland Arts Fund, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, American Airlines, The Irving Rams Foundation and The Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the illinois Arts Council. Special thanks to Friends of The Dance Center. All programming is subject to change.

The Dance Center’s presentation of Merce Cunningham Dance Company is funded, in part, by tbe Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Sara Lee Foundation and the Heartland Arts Fund.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company performs at the Joan W. and Irving B. Hams Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, November 14 and 15 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-48 and are available in person at The Dance Center box office, by phone at 312-344-8300 or on-line at www .ticketweb.com. Subscription discounts of 20 percent are available when ordering tickets for three or more companies presented as part of The Dance Center’s 2003-04 season. Registration for Conversations on Cunningham is $50 per person. For more information, visit www .dancecenter.org.

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