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Merce Cunningham, the American iconoclastic choreographer who was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater.

He crossed artistic barriers and stretched the parameters of dance, refusing to accept center stage as the sole magnet of attention. Cunningham divided theatrical space into independent zones of action, believing that dance should reflect a world in which people constantly monitor many simultaneous activities.



Working with his long-term collaborator and partner, John Cage, who died in 1992, he set about freeing dance from its restrictive conventions. He detached his choreography from music and from story lines, letting it stand in its own right.
At times he would throw coins or dice to decide the flow of movements, and ended the unwritten convention that dancers face the audience.He also took dance out of its box, linking it to other mediums, notably contemporary art.


He formed his own company in 1953, allying himself with leading members of the American avant-garde: painters Andy Warhol, Frank Stella and Jasper Johns, among others. Robert Rauschenberg became his first resident designer, and Cage served as music director.

Sadly, on July 26, 2009, this amazing avant-garde choreographer and pioneer of modern dance died at the age of 90.