Remembering Merce

As part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's premiere Legacy Tour performance on February 12, two distinguished faculty members of Ohio State's Department of Dance, Karen Eliot and David Covey, will be offering personal remembrances of their own experiences working with Cunningham in a pre-performance talk at 7 PM (free to all ticketholders). Eliot is a former dancer with Cunningham's company, whose book, Dancing Lives: Five Female Dancers from the Ballet d'Action to Merce Cunningham (2007), investigates Cunningham's historical contribution. In 1998, Covey received a BESSIE award for his lighting design for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and now serves as production coordinator for Ohio State's Department of Dance. You can read reflections from Eliot on Cunningham's works from a dancer's perspective, and Covey on lighting Cunningham's work online now. A post-performance Q&A session with Robert Swinston, associate choreographer, and David Vaughn, company archivist, will conclude the evening and provide further insight into the work of this American master.

Other resources:

• Wex Director Sherri Geldin offered thoughts and reflections on the passing of Cunningham.


• Merce Cunningham Dance Company web site


• New York Times looks back at Cunningham


• Wex podcast, Transmissions, including an interview with David Covey, reflecting on Merce.