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Leeanna Holliday

Mrs. Sluder

Dance

16 April 2017

Joyce Dance Company

Three people dressed in black make their way to a table set in front of a wide stage. They

begin to pour water into massive seashells and then spill the water out, making the continuous

random noise of gurgling water. This is what sets the tone for the entire production of the three

Cunningham works. The first piece is titled Inlets 2 followed by Place and How to Pass, Kick,

Fall, and Run. All pieces have many common elements with drastically different themes. This

makes the performance very diverse while keeping a common thread of ideas throughout the

entire show.

The first piece, Inlets 2, had a very peaceful and oceanic feel. The choreographer's intent

was to depict the climate and topography of his home in the Pacific Northwest. The audience

most definitely felt the beach vibe that Cunningham established throughout the dance. This was

seen with the water, seashells, and ocean colored costumes used in the piece. The dance was

created using chance methods which is what we used to create our Christmas dances at Weaver.

It contained elements of repetition, slower and faster movements, and different qualities of

movements. This is also something we experimented with when we were told to make our

Christmas pieces slower, faster, softer, sharper, etc.

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The piece had some strengths and weaknesses. Some strengths were that the dancers kept

the tempo of their dance despite the random noises in the background, the quality of the

movements were smooth and sharp, and the costumes fit the dancers quite nicely. Some

weaknesses were that the dancers were not very stable on their standing legs, only one dancer

landed her double pirouette, the dancers were not completely together, they needed to point their

feet, and the expressions on their faces were all different. For the history of the piece, Inlets 2

was choreographed in 1977 by Merce Cunningham. It was a variation of Inlets made different by

using other chance operations and seven dancers instead of six to produce a different continuity.

The next dance was titled Place. The choreographer's intent was to create a piece that was

dark with neurotic intensity and dramatic qualities. The audience felt on edge and a bit terrified

by the end of this piece, so the intention of this dance was clearly felt. I believe the dance was

about someone being trapped and dancing with crazy thoughts going through his head. This was

seen throughout the dance when the main dancer would join the core dancers for a period of time

and then stand back and watch the dancers. Also when light was shown, the dancers would cover

their eyes and move away from it. This reminded me of someone who is in a dark cell or asylum

for a long time and then sees light for the first time and is blinded.

This dance was similar to many Cunningham pieces in that it had no melody and used

random repetition of the same noise. It also used similar costuming to a Cunningham piece that I

saw at UNCSA which also had only the noise of a buzzing bee as background music. Some

strengths were that the dancers had nice acting skills, the partnering was superb with each partner

group distributing a good amount of weight on each other, everyone was together in timing, there

were impressive partnering tricks, and the girls had straight, pointed legs. There was only one

weakness which was that not all the dancers' arms were even. As far as the history of the dance,
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Place was made in 1971 by Merce Cunningham and the music was titled Mesa by Gordon

Mumma.

The last piece was titled How to Pass, Kick, Fall, and Run. The choreographer's intent for

this piece was to have an athletic theme. He wanted the effect of watching a playground full of

children while two adults were sitting off to the side, talking about completely irrelevant

subjects. The audience could see this extremely well with the two adults dressed in black sitting

on the side of the stage drinking wine and reciting John Cage while the dancers were jumping

and skipping in a childlike manner around the stage. It seemed that the dancers were dancing to

the sound of the words that were read from Indeterminacy by John Cage which is something we

have done in dance class at Weaver. Similarly, when an adult changed the pace or quality of what

she read, we would change the quality of our movements to match the words.

The strengths of the piece were that the relationship between the movements and words

was very strong and the girl with the pink shirt had nice feet, turns, and strength in her arms. The

weaknesses in this piece were a great deal of the same weaknesses found in the other pieces.

There was not enough strength in the dancers' standing legs, the expressions on their faces were

all different, and many of the dancers' arms were uneven. Indeterminacy written by John Cage

was the story that was read during the dancing and of course, the choreographer was Merce

Cunningham.

Overall, the dances were suitable. I was not very impressed by the technique of the

dancers but I loved the idea and intent of the pieces. The whole show made me appreciate

Cunningham as a choreographer and artist more and helped me make connections between the

choreography techniques that we learned in contemporary and the original use of those
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techniques. I would not recommend the show to someone who does not have a firm

understanding of Cunningham and contemporary in general.