Antic Meet (1958)


Music: John Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra
Décor and Costumes: Robert Rauschenberg

Antic Meet captures the exuberant and collaborative spirit that existed between Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg for nearly seventy years. Rauschenberg referred to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as "his largest canvas," and described his relationship with Cunningham as a "compulsive desire to make and share..." "All of us," he said, "worked totally committed, shared every intense emotion, and, I think, performed miracles, for love only." Structured like a series of vaudeville scenes, Antic Meet consists of ten playful and comedic numbers. John Cage proved the musical accompaniment, using a version of Concert for Piano and Orchestra, and Rauschenberg's witty costumes include fur coats, parachute dresses and, famously, a chair strapped to Cunningham's back. Antic Meet was last performed at the Brooklyn Academy  of Music in 1969.

"Funny, touching, and mad."

- Clive Barnes, The New York Times

The revival and preservation of Antic Meet are made possible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and Jeanne Donovan Fisher, and co-commissioned by the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.