Beach Birds / BIPED

While Merce Cunningham died in 2009 at age 90, he kept inspiring the work and passion of dance lovers. His 1991 Beach Birds is the result of his long, fruitful partnership with composer John Cage. This contemplative landscape sprinkles extensive groundwork with chance, mixes calculated and naturalistic motions; these signature, deliberate contradictions open the door for an array of feelings: experiment the softness of dawn, listen to the birds singing, feel the sound of the sea… To create BIPED in 1999, with music by Gavin Bryars, Cunningham generated movements using a computer software, producing a choreography for artificial shapes: giant, slender forms projected next to the people dancing on stage, multiplying moving figures and dimensions. The Merce Cunningham Forever program, where the sensuous meets the abstract, renders the spirit of this modern dance master.