| Description |
1 online resource (100 min.) |
| Summary |
Ocean (1994), one of Merce Cunningham's most ambitious works, was originally conceived by John Cage in 1991 as a dance to be performed in the round, with the audience surrounding the dancers, and the musicians (112 of them) surrounding the audience. Although it was not possible for the two to realize this project at the time, a commission for performances in Brussels and Amsterdam in 1994 later made this grand concept a reality. Cunningham choreographed the work in nineteen sections, using a chance process based on the number of hexagrams in the I Ching-64 that was then doubled for length. This multiplicity of phrases allowed for solos, duets, trios, quartets, and group sections. To accustom the dancers to dancing in the round, Cunningham told them "you have to put yourself on a merry-go-round that keeps turning all the time." Andrew Culver, following Cage's concept, composed Ocean 1-95 for an unamplified orchestra of 122 or 150, to be performed in the round with the aid of video monitors displaying clock time for the musicians' reference. The piece is complemented by David Tudor's Soundings: Ocean Diary, which is performed simultaneously. This electronic composition, scored for four or more musicians, is amplified with two rings of speakers. Marsha Skinner designed unitards in varied colors for all of the dancers as well as iridescent chiffon dresses for the women to don during the course of the dance. Filmmaker and longtime Cunningham collaborator Charles Atlas filmed the last performances of Ocean, held in the Rainbow Quarry in Minnesota, September 2008. Using a five-camera crew, Atlas filmed three performances of this epic production, which he then edited into a single film. Atlas's films stand as the final living record of many of Cunningham's seminal works, and the feature-length Ocean marked his final Cunningham project |
| Notes |
Title from resource description page (viewed March 07, 2017) |
| Credits |
Music: Ocean 1-133 / by Andrew Culver ; Soundings : ocean diary / by David Tudor |
| Performer |
Merce Cunningham Dance Company |
| Event |
Recorded Rainbow Quarry |
| Genre/Form |
Filmed dance.
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Filmed dance.
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Danse filmée.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Atlas, Charles, director
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Cunningham, Merce, choreographer
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Culver, Andrew, 1953- composer.
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Tudor, David, 1926-1996, composer.
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Cage, John
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Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
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