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Trisha Brown Dance Company and Merce Cunningham Trust

Dancing with Bob: Rauschenberg, Brown and Cunningham Onstage

Canceled

Dancers in colorful leotards stand behind a translucent cloth, a large cloth hangs from the ceiling in front of them.

Experience the power of collaboration across disciplines in this celebration of the iconoclastic American artist Robert Rauschenberg on his centennial.

Dancing with Bob: Rauschenberg, Brown and Cunningham Onstage celebrates not only Rauschenberg but five groundbreaking 20th century American artists. Experience a historic program of two masterpieces whose visual presentations were designed by Rauschenberg. The program begins with Trisha Brown Dance Company’s seminal work Set and Reset (1983), with music by Laurie Anderson, followed by Cunningham’s Travelogue (1977), a vaudevillian, colorful tour de force. Travelogue features longtime Rauschenberg and Cunningham collaborator John Cage’s Telephones and Birds, which has been adapted for mobile devices by Adam Tendler. Cage will also be celebrated in the Available Light Theatre’s John Cage 101 on January 30, 31, and February 1 in our Performance Space. (program approx. 75 mins.)

IMAGE CAPTION
Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Travelogue (1977). Photo: Charles Atlas. Courtesy of the Merce Cunningham Trust and the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, the New York Public Library.

"‘Set and Reset’ (1980) was an instant masterpiece, largely thanks to Mr. Rauschenberg’s astonishingly imaginative designs."
New York Times

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More about the artists

Trisha Brown Dance Company

The Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC), established in 1970, is dedicated to the performance and preservation of the work of Trisha Brown and projects related to her legacy. Brown engaged collaborators who are leaders in all artistic fields including visual artists Robert Rauschenberg and Donald Judd and musicians Laurie Anderson and John Cage. With these partners Brown created an exceptionally varied body of work, which the company has toured and presented throughout the world, building relationships with audiences and artists alike. TBDC has robust education and outreach programs that include workshops, master classes, and lectures. This is the TBDC’s third appearance at the Wex, with prior performances in 1990 and 1998.

Merce Cunningham Trust

Merce Cunningham continually pushed the boundaries of modern dance during his seventy-year career as one of the greatest American dance artists. The Merce Cunningham Trust, established in 2000, preserves Cunningham’s legacy and carries his work into the future. Cunningham’s collaborative spirit meant that he was always seeking the ways in which dance intersected with other disciplines. Through these experiments, most notably with his life partner John Cage, Cunningham came to the somewhat radical conclusion that music and dance could exist independently within the same performance. Throughout his illustrious career, Cunningham created 190 repertory dances, many of which are still being taught today. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which has been presented at the Wex many times, was first presented in the Wex’s inaugural season (1989–90) alongside Laurie Anderson and John Cage.

Program Support

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Doris Duke Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

CampusParc

The Columbus Foundation

Every Page Foundation

Mellon Foundation

Axium Packaging

Nationwide Foundation

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

Joyce Shenk

Lachelle Thigpen

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Trisha Brown Dance Company and Merce Cunningham Trust