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MERCE CUNNINGHAM began choreographing independently in 1942. Teaching soon became an important adjunct to his choreography, both in the development of movement that would become material for actual dances, and in the training of dancers equipped to perform that movement. During the forties and early fifties he began to be in demand for master classes and short courses in schools and universities across the United States. In the summer of 1949, Cunningham spent several months in Paris, where he taught classes and gave concerts. On his return to New York, he was invited to join the faculty of the School of American Ballet, where he taught a weekly class in Cunningham technique for two seasons. Cunningham was on the faculty of Black Mountain College, North Carolina in 1948 and 1952, and was invited back in the summer 1953. That summer he was in residence with a group of dancers who had been studying and performing with him in New York. At the end of the summer they gave performances of the repertory they had been rehearsing: this was the beginning of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a regularly constituted organization. In the early years of the Dance Company, when payment for rehearsal periods was rare, Cunningham began teaching regular classes to his dancers as a way of keeping the company together. These classes were also opened to other dancers. For several summers Cunningham was in residence with his company at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College, New London, teaching, rehearsing, and performing. After renting studios for many years, Cunningham opened his own studio in the winter of 1959 on the top floor of the Living Theatre Building at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fourteenth Street. In 1966, the Studio moved to 498 Third Avenue, and again in 1971 to its present location at Westbeth in the West Village. In addition to classes in technique, Cunningham has taught repertory, composition and videodance workshops both in his studio and elsewhere. Two Video Workshops have been held at the American Center in Paris, in 1978 and 1980. With his collaborator, filmmaker Elliot Caplan, Cunningham taught video and film dance workshops in San Francisco in 1984 and 1986 and in New York at the Cunningham Studio in 1985. UPDATE: In recent years, many of the company's touring engagements, both in the United States and abroad, have taken the form of residencies, whether short or long, whose activities have included study days, technique classes and workshops as well as performances, lecture demonstrations, and open rehearsals.
ROBERT SWINSTON, Assistant to the Choregrapher, has been a member of Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 1980. He attended Middlebury College and the Juilliard School, where he received a BFA in dance. He has also performed with the Martha Graham Apprentice Company, Jose Limon Dance Company, and Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre. He has taught at Montclair State College, SUNY-Purchase and the Juilliard School. He joined the faculty of the Merce Cunningham Studio in 1987. Mr. Swinston has assisted in the staging of Cunningham works for Boston Ballet and White Oak Dance Project.
CAROL TEITELBAUM graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS and an MFA in dance. She studied dance off and on as a young girl, the most inspiring experience being working with James Waring during two summers at Indian Hill. Carol came to NYC to work with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company and later with Manuel Alum and Dancers. After recovering from an injury, she made her way to the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio where she eventually became an apprentice to MCDC and began teaching at the school. She later joined the company from 1986-1993. In addition to teaching at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Carol has taught and set Merce Cunningham's choreography on various schools and companies, including Barnard College, State University of New York at Purchase, LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and Ballet de Lorraine in France. She teaches repertory workshops and also works with MCDC on revivals of choreography.
LOUISE BURNS has performed, choreographed, and taught throughout the world. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the 1970's and 80's performing in such pieces as Duets, Inlets 2, Channels/Inserts and Summerspace. Her choreography has been performed by the Danish National School for Theatre & Dance, the Tasmanian Dance Company of Australia, Compagnie Coline of France, Western Australian Academy for Performing Arts, and several dance departments. Ms. Burns has been guest director of the modern dance program at University of Montana; senior lecturer & head of contemporary dance at WAAPA, Australia; originating faculty at P.A.R.T.S. founded by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker of Brussels; rehearsal director for Jean Claude Gallotta & Groupe Emile Dubois of Grenoble, France touring Ulysses and Romeo et Juliet; and guest teacher with ROSAS and DCA/Philippe Decoufle. Recently, she performed the choreography of Mel Wong, and improvised with Kenneth King and friends in the Improvisation Festival at St. Mark's Church, New York. Her degree is from the University of Hawaii with a focus in Dance Ethnology. At present, Ms. Burns is a Visiting Guest Artist in Dance at the College of William and Mary.
MARY LISA BURNS, Director of Education, has taught at the Merce Cunningham Studio since 1988. She has also taught at Barnard College since 1996, and has been a guest teacher at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, at Wesleyan College, the University of Texas at Austin and as part of the Isle de Danse Festival in Colombe, France. Her work has been presented at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Columbia University's Miller Theater, Barnard College's Minor Latham Playhouse, at Union College (Schenectady, NY), and the Cambridge Art Association (Cambridge, MA). A member of Kenneth King & Dancers for five years, Ms. Burns also performed in the companies and works of Brenda Daniels, Robert Kovich, Gina Gibney, Mitch Kirsch/Dogs in Space, Christopher Beck, the Reeves/Jones Performing Group and in the Tony Kushner/Ann Sullivan work, La Fin de la Baleine. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College, an M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, a Certificate from the Merce Cunningham Studio, and a Certificate from the Dance Education Lab at the 92nd Street Y's Harkness Center. In addition, she has studied Anatomy/Kinesiology with Irene Dowd and Alexander Technique and Pilates with Clarice Marshall.
JANET CHARLESTON has been dancing professionally for over 20 years. She discovered modern dance at the University of Illinois where she arrived as a biology major, and then designed her own program of study in Dance Kinesiology and Therapy. After dancing in Illinois with Beverly Blossom and Dancers, among others, she moved to New York City in 1982. Ms. Charleston danced with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company for five years and performed in the 1992 world tour of the Robert Wilson/Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach. Since 1993 she has worked with Douglas Dunn, with whom she continues to develop solo work. She has danced with a wide variety of other artists, including Christopher Williams, David Parker, Rose Anne Spradlin, Laura Glenn, June Finch, Amy Cox, Albert Reid and Anita Cheng. Ms. Charleston has been a performing and teaching guest artist abroad with Palindrome Dance Company and with the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. In addition, she has taught at New York University and SUNY-Purchase, is a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois, and is on the faculty of the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York City. She is also a certified yoga instructor.
MICHAEL COLE is a New York-born video artist with a background in computer animation and dance. As a dancer, he trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts before touring as a featured performer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In the mid-90's Cole was introduced to computer animation for dance through his work with Cunningham and began training in computer arts. Through a Jacob K. Javits fellowship, he earned an MFA in Dance and Technology from Arizona State University in 2002 and, in the same year, completed a second MFA in Computer Arts from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Cole has produced a number of computer generated dance videos, including Space Invaders (1999), Hyper Alarm Dance (2001), and Liar's Landscape (2003) that have been screened in Moscow, Naples, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Dance Theater Workshop and on television on MetroArts 13. After graduate school, Cole briefly produced motion graphic material for New York Times Television where he learned ways in which media can be manipulated. Michael also spent two years as a tenure track faculty member at the Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago where he taught both dance technique and technology for dancers. Michael's current art practice involves making short, painterly video installation pieces that explore the interstices of stillness and movement toobserve social issues including race, identity and the transmission of information through the news media.
ELLEN CORNFIELD, Choreographer, Ellen Cornfield©ˆs unique dance expression perches on the edge of abstraction and narrative. She juxtaposes the ordinary with the extraordinary, weaving everyday movements (a nodding head, a shaking finger) into a vocabulary of sophisticated dance phrases, fusing what is seen by our human eye (and heart) and our abstract eye (and heart) see into one vibrant and potently personal visual field. CORNFIELD DANCE, formed in 1989, has been supported in their work through many sources, including the 92nd Street Y New Works in Dance Fund NYC, the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, and the Asian Cultural Council. The company has toured throughout the US, Europe, and Japan, performing at such venues as the International Dance Festival in Poland (Krakow and Bytom), the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival NYC, Jacob©ˆs Pillow Indoor-Outdoors Series, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Danspace Project NYC, Theatre Munch in Paris, the Place Theatre in London, and Theater X in Tokyo. CORNFIELD DANCE is a represented artist with the Center for Creative Resources in New York City.med with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1974-1982, and has directed and performed with her own company, Cornfield Dance, since 1989. Her work has been performed throughout the US, Europe and Japan, most recently in Poland and Russia in the summer of 2003. She has taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Harvard Summer Dance Center, SUNY Purchase, Ohio State University, Hofstra University and at the University of California at Berkeley. Visit www.cornfielddance.org to learn more.
JUNE FINCH Before receiving her MA in Dance and Performing Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, June assisted Bessie Schonberg with composition classes at the American Dance Festival. In the late 60' she joined the faculty at the Merce Cunningham Studio and became a founding member of Viola Farber's company with whom she danced and toured for many years. From 1977 to 1982, June taught independently in NYC and created five seasons of work with her group, June Finch and Dancers. In the 80's and 90's June taught and choreographed most extensively at SUNY Purchase and Cornell University. And reconstructed Merce Cunningham's Changing Steps for student dancers at North Carolina School of the Arts and Ohio State University, among many others. Since the early 90' while spending summers on Cape Cod to run a family business, June teaches and presents concerts at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum with her group Danceworks. Among her contributions to the Cunningham Faculty concerts, a dance built from a composition workshop, Frame of Reference, was sent to represent Merce's studio at a fundraising gala at dance Theater of Harlem in 2003.
JEAN FREEBURY grew up in Alberta Canada where she studied at Alberta Ballet School and Banff School of Fine Arts. She danced in various productions with Alberta Ballet Company and the Edmonton Opera before she continued her training at London Contemporary Dance School and North Carolina School of the Arts. In 1990 she received a Canada Council grant to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance School. She danced for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1992-2003 and has been on the faculty of the school since 1996. She has taught master classes and workshops at London Contemporary Dance School, Rotterdam Dans Academy, and Juilliard among others. She currently works with Glen Rumsey, Makram Hamdan, and is a core artist of Magnetic Laboratorium, an intermedia performance group directed by visual artist Marisela la Grave. She continues to study ballet with Christine Wright.
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HRISTOULA HARAKAS, though born in Connecticut, grew up in Athens, Greece where she received her BFA in Dance from the N. Kodaxaki School of Dance. She moved to New York in 1996 as a scholar of both the Alexander Onassis Foundation of Athens, Greece (1996-1999) and the M. Cunningham Dance Foundation (1997-1998). The summer of 2002 she joined the Faculty of the Merce Cunningham Studio upon receiving both Certificates in 'Dance Technique, Repertory and Performance' offered by the Studio. She's been a member of the Donna Uchizono Dance Company since February 2003, with touring engagements throughout the US and Europe. She is currently working on a trio with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jodi Melnick choreographed by Ms Uchizono. In recent years she has performed and collaborated with: Jeremy Nelson and Louis Lara, Maria Hassabi, Amanda Loulaki, Chantal Yzermans and Levi Gonzalez. As a member of the Donna Uchizono Co. she has taught technique and repertory workshops in New York Dance Studios and Universities around the States (Cal Arts, LIU, Barnard College and Maryland University among others) She is also a Certified Pilates Instructor through Bodytonic, New York, where she currently teaches.
MEG HARPER received her BFA in 1996 from the University of Illinois, Champaign- Urbana. She danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1968-1977 and with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company from 1979-1990. She performed in the 1984 production of Einstein on the Beach (Robert Wilson, Director) and has worked with Mr. Wilson as an actor/dancer since 1998. Ms. Harper has taught at the Merce Cunningham Studio since 1968 and was Faculty Chair from 1991-1998. While continuing to teach at the Cunningham Studio, she teaches Tai Chi at Emmanuel Baptist Church and Rutgers Presbyterian Church, Action Magic at the Village Adult Day Health Center, and is Administrative Assistant at Presbyterian Welcome, NYC. This summer she will be a mentor at the Watermill Center, directed by Robert Wilson.
CATHERINE KERR danced with MCDC from 1974 through 1976. Returning to the Company in 1978, she danced ten more years, retiring in 1988. She has been a member of the faculty at the Cunningham Dance Studio since 1975. Since 1989, at the request of CDF she has staged Cunningham's dances (Points in Space, Inlets 2, Duets, Cargo X, Changing Steps) for companies and schools in Europe, America, and Asia. She has also directed workshops at CDS (Shards, and Beach Birds). In addition to her work with the Cunningham Company she has performed with the Washington Ballet, Laura Dean and Dancers and Steve Reich and Musicians, Marjorie Gamso, Sally Bowden, Shirley Radcliffe, and Jamie Cunningham and Tina Croll. In the last two years she created performances with Louise Burns (When We), and Ellen Cornfield (Are You There?) performed at the Construction Company Studio. When not living in NYC she has been on the faculties of London Contemporary Dance School, Laban Institute, Cal Arts, The Conservatory of Dance at S.U.N.Y. Purchase, and Montana State University. She has created a graduate level dance-making course for visual artists, as well as lead an exchange of °∞traditional°± dances at the Marist Mission School in Dete, Zimbabwe. She has received a BA in Humanities from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. In NYC in addition to classes with Cunningham, she has studied ballet with Janet Panetta. While living in London between 1988-95 she studied Yoga with Chloe Fremantle and Mary Stuart.
JEFF MOEN began his dance training at the National Academy of Arts. He holds a BS in Comprehensive Music Education from the University of Illinois. He has danced with American Dance Machine, NY Theatre Ballet, Saeko Ichinohe, Robert Kovitch, and many others. He teaches intensive workshops throughout Japanin August and December. He is also a judge for the Akita Contemporary Dance Competition. Mr. Moen's recent choreography has been praised by the New York Times, Village Voice and DanceViewTimes. He also makes origami art, which can be purchased locally at Takashimayo New York on Fifth Avenue.
BANU OGAN was born in Ankara, Turkey and grew up in Bloomington, Indiana where she studied ballet with Lila Higgins and won a National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award in dance. In 1991, Banu graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1993 to 2000 and originated roles in ten new works. Since leaving the company she has performed in pieces by former Cunningham dancers Foofwa d'Imobilite, Ashley Chen, and Glen Rumsey and she has also worked with The Seldoms, a Chicago-based dance company directed by Carrie Hanson. Banu has been a faculty member of the Merce Cunningham studio since 1998 and has also taught technique class and repertory workshops in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Brazil and Turkey. She has re-staged Cunningham's work for the Royal Swedish Ballet, for students at New World School for the Arts in Miami, Florida, for ATON/Dino Verga Danza in Rome, Italy, for students at Columbia College, Chicago, and for students at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She is currently a full-time faculty lecturer at Columbia College and will return to NYC in the summer to perform and teach at the Juilliard School.
YUKIE OKUYAMA began her dance training in Tokyo at the age of three. Her professional career began with the Tokyo Ballet Group in 1972. Ms. Okuyama performed with the Tokyo Ballet Group through 1986, where many roles were created especially for her. She began choreographing during that time, and was the recipient of many major awards from the Japan Contemporary Dance Association and the Tokyo Shimbun. Ms. Okuyama moved to New York in 1986 and joined the faculty of the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in 1987, where she continues to teach. She also regularly guest teaches throughout Japan. She has been featured in the magazines Dance Fax and Dance Teacher for her skills as a master teacher. Ms. Okuyama is still performing. She has been a member of the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company since 1986, performing throughout the country and abroad. Ms. Okuyama enjoys designing and sewing dance costumes. She has created costumes for the companies of Pam Tanowitz, Anita Cheng, Saeko Ichinohe, Mary Seidman, and Jeff Moen, among others.
JEANNIE STEELE started her career with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1990, first as an apprentice then as a company member from 1993 °© 2005. She began teaching technique classes at the Merce Cunningham Studio in 1997 and served as Rehearsal Assistant to the company from 2001 to 2006. Jeannie has assisted in the re-staging of several works including Summerspace (1958) for the New York City Ballet, Night Wandering (1958) for the Royal Swedish Ballet, as well as August Pace (1989) and Ground Level Overlay (1995) for Rambert Dance Company. In January of 2006, Jeannie returned to Rambert to stage Pond Way (1998). She is currently doing a certification course in Pilates at the Kane School of Core Integration in NYC.
STACY SUMPMAN has been performing and teaching for many years since graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1995 with a BA in Theater and Dance. She has studied at the Merce Cunningham Studio since that time and has been involved in various aspects of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a member of the Cunningham Repertory Group, a teacher at the Merce Cunningham Studio, and a teacher of K-12 students visiting the Studio as participants in the MCS Educational Outreach Program. Ms. Sumpman is a recent graduate of the Dance Education Laboratory at the Harkness Center at the 92nd Street Y, which focused on teaching dance in school to K-12 children. She is also an instructor of Swedish Massage Technique, which is a form of movement unto itself, and is currently a teacher and performer.
CHERYL THERRIEN has been a faculty member of The Merce Cunningham Dance Studio since 1993. She has also taught at Purchase College (New York, USA), The Place (London), Festival Oriente Occidente (Rovereto, Italy), Stanford University (California, USA), The Association for Professional Dancers (Dublin, Ireland), Scuola di Danza Contemporaneo L'Altro Movimento (Trento, Italy), Aton Dino Verga Danza (Rome, Italy), Le Centre National de la Danse (Lyon, France), and Tisch School of the Arts (New York University). Ms. Therrien has given master classes at Mills College (California, USA), as well as, for Le Ballet de L'Opera de Lyon, Random Dance Company (London), Ballet Preljocaj and for candidates seeking a Master's Degree in Teaching (Certificat D'Aptitude) at Le Conservatoire National Superior de Danse de Lyon. She's conducted repertory workshops in The United States and Europe, as well as choreographic workshops implementing chance-based operations at The Merce Cunningham Studio and Stanford University. She's also staged Cunningham's work Changing Steps (1973) on the students of Tisch School of the Arts (New York University).
Accompanists
MOSHE GOLDBERG started playing piano at age 5 on a five-octave saloon piano, and now age 69, graduated to a seven and a half real piano. During that time he accompanied modern dance classes at the Cunningham and Graham studios, Juilliard, Pearl Lang, Viola Farber, Jose Limon, Marjorie Mazia, and Dan Waggoner. In the classical ballet field he has played for Corvino, Maggie Black, Jocelyn Lorenz, and STEPS on Broadway.
PAT RICHTER comes from New York City, has a BM from the Eastman School of Music, and an MM from the Manhattan School of Music. "I started improvising at age six when my teacher said, I have to hold a half-note for two counts, and I said, "Why? the composer isn't here." I've been changing other people's music ever since then, and thanks to Merce, have been playing my own music since I started accompanying him in 1967. When I lived in Las Vegas, I went into a recording studio and improvised for an hour, which became the music for Cunningham's TV video, "Deli Comedia."
DRED SCOTT grew up in St. Louis, went to College in Ohio, but it is the San Francisco bay area that he will always call home. He has gained a reputation as an innovative and eclectic pianist and multi-instrumentalist. He has recorded six self produced CD’s as a leader and has performed on over twenty others. He is a co-founder of the ground-breaking hip-hop jazz group, Alphabet Soup, and has recorded with Anthony Braxton, Paul McCandless, Dave Samuels, Marshall Crenshaw and others, and has performed with (among others) Norah Jones, Pete Seager, Arlo Guthrie, Moby, the Berkeley Symphony, Ricky Lee Jones and Dave Garibaldi. Dred is currently based in NYC and regularly performs with Richard Julian, Jay Collins, Rene Risque and the Art Lovers, Mudville, Carol Lipnik, Sasha Dobson and his own jazz trio. Since 1988, Dred has created scores for the works of numerous choreographers, including Sue Bernhard, Alan Danielson and Maxine Steinman, and has accompanied and performed with all the major modern dance companies in San Francisco, including the Oberlin Dance Collective, Joe Goode, Margaret Jennkins and Alonzo King. For more information about his work, visit his web site, www.dredscott.com. |
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