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| Cunningham Dance Foundation | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cunningham Dance Foundation |
| Formation | 1964 |
| Founder | Merce Cunningham |
| Type | Nonprofit arts organization |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Fields | Dance, choreography, performance, preservation |
Cunningham Dance Foundation The Cunningham Dance Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, presenting, and promoting the work of Merce Cunningham and the company he established. It supports performance, education, archival preservation, and international dissemination of Cunningham repertory and technique through residencies, commissions, and partnerships with museums, theaters, and cultural institutions. The Foundation engages with a broad network of choreographers, composers, visual artists, and scholars to sustain Cunningham’s influence on contemporary dance and interdisciplinary arts.
Founded in 1964 during a period of postwar avant-garde expansion, the Foundation grew from the ensemble formed by choreographer Merce Cunningham and collaborators including John Cage and Paul Taylor. Early decades intersected with institutions such as the Juilliard School, New York City Ballet, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and festivals like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Festival d'Avignon. Tours brought works to venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Paris Opera, and Teatro alla Scala, and engaged curators from the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou. Leadership engaged with philanthropic supporters such as the Guggenheim Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and corporate benefactors. The company’s history intersects with figures like John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham (choreographer), Trisha Brown, and Yvonne Rainer, and with collaborations across institutions including Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, Harvard University, and Columbia University.
The Foundation’s mission emphasizes repertory preservation, repertory licensing, education, and commissioning new choreography in dialogue with the Cunningham canon. Programs include touring through partners such as Kulturservis, The Kennedy Center, and regional theaters like Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and residencies at academic centers including University of California, Los Angeles, New York University, Princeton University, and Brown University. Educational outreach involves partnerships with conservatories such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater School, The Ailey School, Paris Conservatoire, and community organizations like Dance Theatre of Harlem. The Foundation administers fellowships, apprenticeships, and mentorships connected to museums including Walker Art Center, Brooklyn Museum, and performing arts centers like Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
The Foundation maintains a repertory spanning Cunningham works staged by company members and guest choreographers; notable pieces have been presented alongside programs featuring choreographers such as George Balanchine, Pina Bausch, Twyla Tharp, Alvin Ailey, and William Forsythe. Staging draws on scenographers and visual artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, and composers such as John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Igor Stravinsky, and Elliott Carter. The Foundation’s influence appears in festivals and venues like Jacob's Pillow, BAM, Sadler's Wells, and international stages including Bolshoi Theatre and Sydney Opera House. Scholars at institutions like The Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge have examined Cunningham’s impact on postmodern choreography, performance studies, and interdisciplinary art.
The Foundation preserves and teaches the Cunningham technique, emphasizing alignment, use of space, and chance procedures that originated in collaborations with figures such as John Cage and institutions like Black Mountain College. Pedagogical initiatives include teacher training, certification, and workshops held at conservatories and universities including The Royal Ballet School, Martha Graham School, Boston Conservatory, and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The method informs contemporary curricula at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Juilliard, and international programs at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and HfMDK Frankfurt. Documentation efforts include notation projects related to systems used by choreographers such as Rudolf Laban and archival scholarship linking to libraries like the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
The Foundation commissions new work and facilitates collaborations between choreographers, composers, and visual artists. Commissioned and affiliated collaborators have included Merce Cunningham (choreographer), John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, David Tudor, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Bill T. Jones, Matthias Herrmann, Ann Hamilton, William Forsythe, Sasha Waltz, Garth Fagan, Simone Forti, and Akram Khan. Institutional collaborations feature partnerships with Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center, and international presenters like Sage Gateshead and Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada.
Archival initiatives maintain scores, notation, rehearsal footage, set designs, and administrative records in collaboration with repositories such as the New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, MoMA, and university archives at Harvard University and Columbia University. Preservation work involves digitization projects alongside partners like Getty Research Institute, International Federation of Film Archives, and Europeana, and curatorial exhibitions at institutions including Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Scholarly catalogs and oral histories engage researchers from Brown University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and Goldsmiths, University of London.
The Foundation and associated artists have received honors tied to awards and institutions such as the MacArthur Fellowship, National Medal of Arts, Guggenheim Fellowship, Praemium Imperiale, Tony Award, Bessie Awards, Laurence Olivier Award, and recognition from cultural ministries in countries including France, Japan, and Germany. Individual artists connected with the Foundation are recipients of fellowships from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and awards from organizations such as American Dance Festival and Dance Critics’ Circle.
Category:Dance organizations Category:Non-profit organizations based in New York City