Registration is FREE for Nasher Members and students; $10 for non-members (includes museum admission). In-person and open to the public. Advance registration requested (limited spaces available).   

Performance: MinEvent 

A MinEvent is an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts drawn from the work of Merce Cunningham. This MinEvent includes material from: Changeling (1957), Antic Meet (1958), Story (1963), and Signals (1973). Each MinEvent is unique and is designed to suit the particular space in which it is presented. This MinEvent was arranged and staged by Rashaun Mitchell and Andrea Weber expressly for the Nasher Sculpture Center.   

Screenings

Introduced by Dr. Nina Martin, Professor of Dance, Texas Christian University School for Classical & Contemporary Dance, and Christie Bondade, Assistant Professor of Dance, Division of Dance, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University. 

Antic Meet (1958) 

1964, 27:09 min, black and white 

Performed like a series of vaudeville scenes that overlap, Antic Meet consists of ten playful and comedic numbers. The curtains opened with Cunningham moving among the other dancers as a clown-like figure "who falls in love with a society whose rules he doesn't know," and concludes much in the same way, as he attempts to keep up with the dancers, each with their own movements, as they dance diagonally across the stage. Cage provided the musical accompaniment, using a version of Concert for Piano and Orchestra, and Rauschenberg designed the costumes, which included fur coats and parachute dresses over black leotards. -- Merce Cunningham Trust 

Director: Arne Arnbom. Décor and Costumes: Robert Rauschenberg. Producer: Sveriges Radio Televisionen. Music: John Cage. Dancers: Carolyn Brown, Merce Cunningham, Barbara Dilley, Viola Farber, Sandra Neels, Steve Paxton. 

Interscape (2000) 

2001, 46:41 min, color 

Interscape was first performed at the Eisenhower Theater, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on April 6, 2000. Some of the choreography for this piece was originally created for the dance film Melange (2000), including a series of trips where one dancer is continually replaced by another. The dance is made up of a series of trios and duets, and there are also ensemble passages in which the dancers circle the stage in big leaps. Robert Rauschenberg designed the décor and costumes, naming his design Interscape Mirage. Both the backdrop and costumes are silkscreened with a collage of various images. The piece is performed to John Cage's One, composed in 1991. 

Choreography: Merce Cunningham. Direction: Charles Atlas. Dancers: Cedric Andrieux, Jonah Bokaer, Lisa Boudreau, Ashley Chen, Paige Cunningham, Holley Farmer, Jennifer Goggans, Koji Mizuta, Daniel Squire, Jeannie Steele, Derry Swan, Robert Swinston, Cheryl Therrien. Music Performed by: Loren Dempster. Executive Producer: Bénédicte Pesle. Assistant Director: Martine Robert. Production Manager: Robert Alaux. Director of Photography: Jacques Pamart. Additional Cameras: Olivier Chambon, Robert Alaux. Video Assistant: N'Guyen Van Franckin. Sound: Stephane Bauer. Editing: Joshua Thorson. Sound Consultant: Stephan Moore. Production Manager: Will Knapp. Lighting Director: Aaron Copp. Music Recording: Jane Shaw. Wardrobe Supervisor: James Hall. Special Thanks: Christopher Crimes, La Filature, Mulhouse, France Helena Van Dantzig, Leurac Productions, Board of Directors of the Cunningham Dance Foundation, Molly Davies. For Cunningham Dance Foundation: Artistic Director: Merce Cunningham. Founding Music Director: John Cage (1912-1992). Assistant to the Choreographer: Robert Swinston. Music Director: Takehisa Kosugi. Executive Director: Jeffrey James. Communications Director: Trevor Carlson. Company Manager: David Pini. Director of Finance: Margaret Pasanowic. Archivist: David Vaughan. Special Thanks: Christopher Crimes, La Filature, Mulhouse, France. Helena Van Dantzig, Leurac Productions. And the Board of Directors of the Cunningham Dance Foundation: Molly Davies, Chair. Funding: Cunningham Dance Foundation filming initiatives are achieved a part of To Merce, with major support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Sage and John Cowles, Judith and Alan Fishman, the KRK Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. This film was made possible through grants from Save America's Treasures, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Major support was also provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. INTERSCAPE was first performed at Eisenhower Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, April 6th, 2000. Copyright 2008 Cunningham Dance Foundation 

Night Wandering (1958) 

1964, 13 min, black and white 

Paradoxically described by Walter Sorell as "a tender lullaby of love" and by Richard Buckle as "cold and menacing, the courtship of the Macbeths," Night Wandering is a duet reminiscent of snowy landscapes. Cernovitch designed the original costumes: fur tunics that Cunningham wore over trousers, and Brown wore over tights. Continuing with the piece's Nordic theme, the music by Bo Nilsson was characterized by bursts of activity followed by moments of silence, evoking the feeling of traveling through the spacious, and seemingly endless Northern night. -- Merce Cunningham Trust 

Director: Arne Arnbom. Producer: Sveriges Television. Costumes: Robert Rauschenberg. Producer: Finnish Broadcasting Company. Music: Bo Nilsson. Musician: David Tudor. Dancers: Carolyn Brown, Merce Cunningham. 

Summerspace (1958) 

2008 (capture of a 2001 performance), 20 min, color 

This piece is indicative of Cunningham’s unique collaborative method, in which Feldman composed the score, Rauschenberg designed the décor, and Cunningham choreographed independently from each other. Together, the movement, music and décor give the effect of a balmy, summer day. Dressed in painted leotards, the dancers move about the stage in sudden bursts of speed and suspensions, zigzagging every which way, like flying creatures. The delicate music, at times sounds like bubbles of water rising to the surface, and at others, with a muffled rumble in the bass, like distant thunder. 

Premiere Date: Aug 17, 1958. Premiere Venue: American Dance Festival, Connecticut College. Premiere Location: New London, CT. Music: Morton Feldman, Ixion. Set: Robert Rauschenberg. Costumes: Robert Rauschenberg. Lighting: Robert Rauschenberg. Duration: 20 minutes. Original Cast: Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, Merce Cunningham, Viola Farber, Cynthia Stone, Marilyn Wood. 

Related Exhibition: Rauschenberg Sculpture 

Robert Rauschenberg’s approach to sculpture was closely connected to his passion for music, dance and performance, as he aimed to bring what he called theater’s “sense of urgency” to his own works. Rauschenberg began working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the 1950s, and throughout the next decade, he contributed to over 20 performances by providing lighting, set, and costume designs. These collaborations echoed Rauschenberg’s studio practice and featured many of his characteristic visual elements.   

Rauschenberg Sculpture is made possible by leading support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. The Nasher Sculpture Center joins an international roster of institutions commemorating the artist’s 100th birthday. Generous support is provided by Frost Bank. Support is also provided by Gianfranco D'Amato, Leo Katz, Katherine Sachs, and the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District (DTPID). 

The Nasher Sculpture Center is supported, in part, by Nasher Members, the Christine P. Gancarz Fund at The Dallas Foundation, The City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Dorothy M. Rickey, TACA, the Von Rydingsvard and Greengard Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.