The sensuous meets the abstract in the work of this modern dance master.

Merce Cunningham’s work explores the ideas of transfiguration. BIPED references that humans are two footed creatures. The choreography focusses on movement restricted to motion supported by the feet. Working with two dancers, he choreographed 70 phrases that were transposed into digital images. A combination of solos, duets, trios, and ensemble dances are performed live alongside these projections and digital artwork. The stage is veiled with a front cloth onto which ethereal images of the human form are transformed into abstract shapes and figures. Created in 1999 just after Cunningham’s 80th birthday, BIPED features music by Gavin Bryars.

His 1991 Beach Birds is the result of his long, fruitful partnership with composer John Cage. In Cunningham’s words Beach Birds “is all based on individual physical phrasing. The dancers don’t have to be exactly together. They can dance like a flock of birds, when they suddenly take off.” A work for eleven dancers, the rhythm for Beach Birds was much more fluid than other Cunningham dances, so that the sections could differ in length from performance to performance.

Part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival

Co-presented by Sadler’s Wells and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels

Header image description: Six performers in skin-tight gold clothing are positioned against a faded red background. The middle pair is in sharp focus, the right pair is slightly blurry, and the left pair is fully blurred, suggesting they moved quickly while the photo was being taken.

Header image © Agathe Poupeney