"It doesn't really matter for us what music we're dancing to, because we dance all the time in silence," said Robert Swinston, who joined the company in 1980 and serves as Cunningham's assistant. "This way, every audience member will have a different experience."
Cunningham, 88, founded the world-famous company in 1953, relying on his method of "chance operations" to choreograph his work, meaning the order of his dance phrases could be randomized. The result is an organic and unpredictable — though never improvised — movement.
Furthermore, Cunningham dancers often experience a show's décor and music only when it premieres, allowing them to remain autonomous from any type of cue.
"With Merce, there's never a narrative, and he doesn't try to tell a story with his work. It's all about movement for its own sake," said Bonnie Brooks, chair of the dance department at Columbia College Chicago.
Brooks will present a preview talk before the performances to acquaint audiences with the chorographer's distinctive style.
"This dancing is very different from, for instance, Gene Kelly doing 'Singin' in the Rain,' " she said. "Merce is constantly creating a whole new set of possibilities for new ways of dancing and thinking about the stage."
The evening's dancing will begin in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall with "Event," a 20-minute collage of excerpts from past and present Cunningham pieces.
As audiences check out iPods and move to Segerstrom Hall for "eyeSpace," "Beach Birds for Camera" — a film collaboration of Cunningham, his late partner John Cage and Elliot Caplan — will be projected on the side of the building.
