ONE AUDIO PIECE The great dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham died on July 26 at the age of ninety. Born in Centralia, Washington, Cunningham studied with Martha Graham and launched his own company in 1953. For the past generation he has been widely recognized as the world's greatest living choreographer, one of the last of the modern dance originals in a line going back nearly 100 years to Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis. Cunningham's long professional and personal relationship with John Cage (1912-1992) helped him pioneer a new use of music in dance where two art forms lived parallel lives and were independent of one another, each occupying their own sphere in the same work. I wanted to offer a dancer's perspective on Cunningham's life and influence. I can think of no better guide to the history of dance than Tim Veach, dancer, founder and artistic director of the Columbus Dance Theatre. When performing arts organizations are folding every which way in these tough times, CDT is ready of a new season in their own theater. Tim Veach remembers Merce Cunningham: [audio:veach-for-web] You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls.-Merce Cunningham --Christopher Purdy
Christopher Purdy is Classical 101's early morning host, 7-10 a.m. weekdays. He is host and producer of Front Row Center – Classical 101’s weekly celebration of Opera and more – as well as Music in Mid-Ohio, Concerts at Ohio State, and the Columbus Symphony broadcast series. He is the regular pre-concert speaker for Columbus Symphony performances in the Ohio Theater.