Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event for Merce Cunningham
Dancer and choreographer Megan Walker-Straight, who's also a Term Lecturer in the SCA's dance area, is participating in Night of 100 Solos, an ambitious, multi-city performance comprised of solos choreographed by Merce Cunningham. One of the most important and influential choreographers of the 20th Century, the performance marks the occasion of what would be Cunningham's 100th birthday, on April 16, 2019. Spanning the Barbican Centre in London, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York City, and the Center for the Art of Performance (CAP) at UCLA in Los Angeles, each venue will have 25 dancers (and two understudies) presenting 100 solos in a 90 minute performance, drawing from this extensive and unique archive of work.
The dancers for the event worked with alumni of the Cunningham Dance Company, including Walker-Straight, who danced with the Company from 1980 to 1986, to learn their solos. Bringing together experienced and newer dancers across generations, this process is a significant historical transmission and preservation of Cunningham's work and ideas, since the solos were originally developed while working individually with the alumni dancers at the time they were first choreographed.
Because of the time differences between the different locations for Night of 100 Solos, the entire event is also being live-streamed, so it will be possible for online viewers to watch all of the performances, beginning in London, then New York, and finally Los Angeles. If viewers are unable to watch in real time, however, the live-streams will remain online for three months after the performances. More information and a full schedule and list of credits can be found on the Merce Cunningham Trust's website. The website also tells us that "each city’s performance will include live music performed by composers and musicians who represent expressions of Cunningham’s musical interests over the course of his lifetime," as an excellent added bonus.
Night of 100 Solos is the centerpiece event in the Merce Cunningham Trust's year-long celebration of the Merce Cunningham Centennial, which also includes classes, workshops, symposia, screenings, festivals, exhibitions, and many other performances of old and new works inspired by Cunningham's ideas around the world.
Read more about Night of 100 Solos in the New York Times and the Guardian newspapers.