© Agathe Poupeney
In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents, in collaboration with Sadler's Wells, the program Merce Cunningham Forever interpreted by the Lyon Opera Ballet, as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival in London.
Merce Cunningham Forever brings together some of the choreographer’s most renowned pieces.
Despite Merce Cunningham’s passing in 2009 at age 90, he keeps 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 chances, and mixes calculated and naturalistic motions. These signature and 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, Merce 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.
About the artist
© Annie Leibovitz
Merce Cunningham
In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents, in collaboration with Sadler's Wells, the program Merce Cunningham Forever composed by Beach Birds and BIPED by Merce Cunningham as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival in London.
