The Merce Cunningham Trust’s Centennial Celebration

This April, The Florida State University School of Dance in conjunction with the Merce Cunningham Trust, the FSU College of Music, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Student Life Cinema will be hosting a series of Cunningham Centennial Celebrations as part of a global celebration of the life and work of one of the greatest American dance artists, Merce Cunningham. The events are intended to give a broad audience the opportunity to experience the range of Cunningham’s work and process—and extends his impact into the future.  Performances will include:

Musicircus Florida, the Florida premiere of a large-scale multidisciplinary work, which will intermix approximately 100 performers: musicians, dancers, artists, actors, poets, acrobats, and film. It will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 13 at the Museum of Fine Arts. Guests may come and go at any time during the performance. FREE and open to the public.

A Birthday Party for Merce, the world premiere of a work for music, dance, and food. Organized by composer Stephen Montague, this piece will be performed on what would have been Cunningham’s 100th birthday, April 16, 2019 and will feature performers from the FSU College of Music and dancers from the FSU School of Dance. The performance begins at noon on Landis Green. FREE and open to the public.

A live stream of Night of 100 Solos. This event, spearheaded by the Merce Cunningham Trust will be the largest Cunningham event ever staged and will take place in London, New York City, and Los Angeles. Held on what would have been Cunningham’s 100^th birthday, 75 dancers (25 in each venue) along with an ensemble of musicians at the vanguard of contemporary music, will perform a distinct, 75-minute work that consists of a unique selection of 100 solos choreographed by Cunningham. A FREE live webstream will be available at http://mercecunningham.org.

A screening of Cunningham’s Interscape by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company along with a live musical performance by The Composers Ensemble. The event will be at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 17 at the Student Life Cinema. FREE and open to the public.

Collaborations: MoFA Celebrates the Merce Cunningham Centennial, a roundtable discussion with scholars, artists, and performers whose work is cross-disciplinary. Talks will center on what it looks like to have dancers, musicians, and artists collaborating in the contemporary space. The event will occur at the Museum of Fine Arts on the evening of Thursday, April 18 at 6:00pm. FREE and open to the public.

MinEvent, an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts drawn from dance works by Cunningham. The piece will be set on FSU School of Dance students by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Silas Riener with live musical performance spearheaded by composer Stephen Montague. The work will be shown in the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre during Days of Dance B at 7:30 p.m. on April 20 and 26 and at a 2:00 p.m. matinee on April 27. Tickets for Days of Dance B are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors (62+), $10 for children and non-FSU students, and $5 for FSU students.

Tickets may be purchased in advance using the link below.

PURCHASE TICKETS

For more information about the event, please see our “Learn More” link below.

Photo courtesy of Annie Leibovitz