Dance – Page 6

Merce Cunningham Dance Company

January 2, 2012 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“…The music critic Charles Rosen, observing that difficulty in the arts has characterized most great music and literature for centuries (Dante and Beethoven as well as Schoenberg and Stravinsky), wrote, in 1998, ‘A work that 10 people love passionately is more important than one that 10,000 do not mind hearing.’ Cunningham’s career exemplified that. And among the first 10 people to follow his work passionately were the artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.” [. . .] –Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times, December 22, 2011

Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten, “Popopera” (2009)

September 25, 2009 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“After presenting their highly acclaimed HELL, based on Dante’s Inferno, Emio Greco | PC has completed [purgatorio] POPOPERA which will have its NYC premiere at The Joyce Theater. The company takes its inspiration from Dante’s literary depiction of a geographical place and feeling of transition that provides the opening for inner transformation. Greco and Scholten have said, ‘whereas in HELL we let our dancers wander round the same circles each time, in [purgatorio] POPOPERA they break out of them. The will, the need to live and especially the hope for the future are the essential motives. In [purgatorio] POPOPERA we try to show the audience other images than it expects of those overly familiar themes that cling to the concept of purgatory (catharsis, purification through suffering, …) in order to approach these themes from new angles.’ The company invites audiences to witness the transformation and synergies between dancers’ bodies and the lustrous black electric guitars they carry in this performance that melds dance with rock concert. The piece features original music composed by Bang-on-a-Can founder Michael Gordon, performed live by the dancers and soprano Michaela Riener.” [. . .] —Off Broadway, September 16, 2009

Paul Taylor, “Scudorama” (1963, 2009)

February 15, 2009 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“In Scudorama eight dancers, wearing street clothes and bright leotards and using beach towels as shrouds (with sets and costumes designed by the artist Alex Katz), disintegrate into ravaged forms. Like shifting shadows they crawl across the floor in jagged bursts of bewilderment, emptiness and rage. The dance’s accompanying program note, from Dante, begins with ‘What souls are these who run through this black haze?’ For Mr. Taylor, those words refer to the ‘lost souls in purgatory, because they hadn’t done anything good and they hadn’t done anything bad.'” [. . .] –Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, February 13, 2009

Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten, “Popopera” (2009)

Paul Taylor, “Scudorama” (1963, 2009)

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