Merce Cunningham Dance Company - Dancing with Merce Cunningham

DANCING WITH MERCE CUNNINGHAM

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers

Florida International University, Miami

Florida State University, Tallahassee

New College of Florida, Sarasota

University of Central Florida, Orlando

University of Florida, Gainesville

University of North Florida, Jacksonville

University of South Florida, Tampa

University of West Florida, Pensacola

DANCING WITH MERCE CUNNINGHAM

MARIANNE PREGER-SIMON

Foreword by Stuart Hodes

Afterword by Alastair Macaulay

University Press of Florida

Gainesville Tallahassee Tampa Boca Raton

Pensacola Orlando Miami Jacksonville Ft. Myers Sarasota

Photographs without credit are by Marianne Preger-Simon.

Copyright 2019 by Marianne Preger-Simon

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

This book may be available in an electronic edition.

24 23 22 21 20 196 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947131

ISBN 978-0-8130-6485-7

The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.

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CONTENTS

by Stuart Hodes

by Alastair Macaulay

FOREWORD

What began as a Junior Year in Paris for Marianne Preger-Simon soon became a commitment to Merce Cunningham and lifelong friendship with Cunningham himself. Her memoir, in addition to offering a look at the formation of his company, yields an overwhelming impression of joy. Preger-Simon went on to dance in his troupe for ten years, leaving when she decided to have children, and remaining among his circle of friends until Cunningham died in 2009.

Taking a leave from Cornell for a year in Paris in 1948, Preger-Simon was dazzled by the rebirth of arts there, as this writer, after discharge from the Army Air Corps in 1946, was dazzled by dance in New York City. At Cornell she had studied with May Atherton, the only student ever to sue Martha Graham for what she claimed was a touch that caused her back to go out. This resulted in an order that no teacher in the Graham School was permitted to touch a student in class. Merce Cunningham, who as far as I know never taught in the Graham School but taught in rented studios before obtaining his own NYC studio, always asked, May I touch you? consistent with a sensitive and gentle personality that generated Preger-Simons lifelong devotion, not only to Merce but also to the circle who gathered about him and the dance form he originated.

The slender archive of books about Merce Cunningham will benefit by the addition of this journal-like volumejournal-like because Preger-Simon did not actually keep a journal until 1957but it draws upon letters, conversations, a good memory, and a warm relationship with and intense love for the famed choreographer.

She writes:

Cunningham did not use dance technique. He taught it so others could produce his moves, but did not use it because he did not need it. Merce created this wonderful technique for us to learn that he never used because he just WAS.

Actually Cunningham had studied tap, classical ballet, and Graham technique, teaching the last when I took his classes in 1947. But if the goal of dance technique is to free you to move as your imagination directs, Cunningham achieved it to an extraordinary degree. I can think of only one other dancer, Carmen de LaVallade, who, to cite critic Clive Barnes, dances like the birds sing.

Preger-Simon toured with Cunningham in the days when the entire troupe, dancers, musicians, stage manager, and lighting designer toured in one VW microbus. I recall him saying, We are quite happy at fifty miles an hour.

Stuart Hodes

PREFACE

One day, about five or six years ago, I was examining the contents of long-unvisited boxes in the attic. I came across one box with journals dating to 1957, as well as letters Id written to a college friend and to my parents as far back as 1948. Fortunately, my wise friend had sent me back the packet of letters Id mailed her from France in 19481949 when I met Merce Cunningham, and my parents had returned to me letters Id written to them in the 1950s when I was dancing in Merce Cunninghams company.

This electrifying treasure prompted me to ponder the possibility of writing a book about meeting Merce Cunningham, studying dance with him, dancing in his first company, and my ongoing connection to him throughout his life. Part of the book is from my memory, as unfortunately I lacked the foresight to keep a journal at first. I did start to keep a journal in 1957, during the last year I danced in the company. Over several years, as the book unfolded, it became clear that it was a personal story, full of memories, and so I included the culture that surrounded me as I encountered and participated in it. Writing this book, and looking back over so many years, has been very enjoyable and often surprisingly informative. I feel deeply blessed by the connections and events that serendipity has offered me.

There are some extended journal entries, several of which quote Merce and John Cage and others. I have also included letters and postcards I wrote to my college friend while I was in Paris, as well as to my parents during the Cunningham companys first tour on the West Coast in the fall of 1955. In several places I insert journal entries out of chronological order as a way of illustrating significant points Im making. Ive edited the entries where they are unclear, confusing or too sketchy. Ive also included photos and copies of some of the many loving postcards and letters Merce sent me over the years, all of which I treasure.

What follows is a very personal picture of some grand creative artists, sifted through the memory of someone who loved them all.

PART I

ENTERING THE ORBIT

AT THE END

Merce would like to speak with you and Carolyn, said a smiling administrator of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The company was performing at Jacobs Pillow, in western Massachusetts, that July weekend in 2009. I was deeply moved that Merce wanted to say Good-bye to me, knowing as I did, as he did, that he was wavering on the perimeter(1) of his phenomenal life. The administrator led Carolyn Brown and me down the aisle of the main theater to the front of the orchestra pit. A camera had been set up, this July evening, to transmit the companys performance to its failing choreographer, home in bed in New York City.