Merce Cunningham
Cross Currents / Pond Way / Walkaround Time 3 Ballets : The Royal Ballet, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris
Pond Way © Filip Van Roe ©
Cross Currents :
Choreography, Merce Cunningham
Music, Conlon Nancarrow, Rhythm Studies for Player Piano
Ligthing, Beverly Emmons
Costumes, Merce Cunningham
Restaged by Daniel Squire
With one male and two female dancers from The Royal Ballet
First performed on the 31rd June 1964 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre (Londres)
Pond Way :
Choreography, Merce Cunningham
Music, Brian Eno, New Ikebukkuro (For 3 CD Players)
Scenography, Roy Lichtenstein
Ligthing, David Covey
Costumes, Suzanne Gallo
Restaged by Andrea Weber
With five male dancers and eight female dancers from Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
First performed the 13th January 1998 at l’Opéra national de Paris
Walkaround Time :
Choreography, Merce Cunningham
Music, David Behrman, ...for nearly an hour...
Text, Marcel Duchamp, La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même [La Boîte Verte], Paris, 1934 © Succession Marcel Duchamp, 2019 Sets, based on Marcel Duchamp, La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même, dit Le Grand Verre, originally supervised by par Jasper Johns
Costumes, reproduced from Jasper Johns
Ligthing, Beverly Emmons
Restaged by Meg Harper, Jennifer Goggans
With four male dancers and five female dancers from the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris
First performed on the 10th March 1968 at State University College (Buffalo)
Originals productions, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Cross Currents (1964), Pond Way (1998), Walkaround Time (1968) © Merce Cunningham Trust. All rights reserved
In association with Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris) ; Théâtre de la Ville-Paris ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from Fondation d’entreprise Hermès as part of its New Settings programme.
In partnership with France Inter and ARTE
From Marcel Duchamp to Brian Eno, the dance of Merce Cunningham has journeyed through all art forms and tendencies, transforming itself with each artistic encounter. Opening up their repertory of works, London's Royal Ballet, the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, and the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris each presents one of his pieces, unveiling different aspects of his aesthetic approach
The constant balance in Merce Cunningham’s work between avant-garde and choreographic tradition, experimentation and formal investigation has been a major factor behind his entry into the repertory of so many ballets. In conjunction with the Portrait dedicated to him, three internationally-acclaimed ballets will each be presenting one of his milestone works. In the case of the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, the piece in question will be Walkaround Time, a true dada manifest dating back to the year 1968. A homage to Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns designed a set based on his piece Le Grand Verre, in which the interplay on transparency filtered the dance, leaving the bodies to recompose the perception of its forms like pieces in a moving jigsaw puzzle. The Royal Ballet of London will be presenting Cross Currents, the title of which exposes the poetical elements of Cunningham’s work. Honing in on the rhythmical qualities of each dancer, this piece hinges upon the merging together of the different phrases – like currents crossing over each other, then coming together in unison in order to better distribute themselves in the space. The last of the three works by Cunningham will be Opera Ballet Vlaanderen’s production of Pond Way. With its enigmatic title, this work, dating back to 1998, is characterised by its mysterious, aquatic feel. Set to the music of Brian Eno, the sliding movements of the dancers evokes ripples on the surface of the water. Alternating between the airy and the liquefied, their gestures flow in a subtle balance between synchronisation and its opposite, ‘décalage’.
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Estimated running time : 1h20
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