MERCE CUNNINGHAM REDUX Book Review — Centennial Celebration

Oversized, six pounds plus, and counting more than 350 photo-rich pages, photographer James Klosty’s latest MERCE CUNNINGHAM REDUX release was timed for what would have been the legendary choreographer’s 100^th Birthday. You too may often cycle back to that centennial milestone with wonder as you do your first, second and third read, and savor the abundance of dance history wealth one can find in Klosty’s black and white photography. Klosty’s lens has preserved breakthrough choreographic milestones—where Cunningham blasted apart the usual center stage focal points, the tight sync of music, costumes and décor, and then insisted on a new athletic virtuosity from himself and his entire troupe, and more.

MERCE CUNNINGHAM REDUX Gives Us a Feel for Cunningham’s World

For this writer— a dance enthusiast and never dancer—it’s the combination of photos with words of the many Cunningham collaborators contributing essays for the book—dancers, set designers, legendary artists, and Cunningham’s life partner John Cage—that make the book vibrate with vitality even more. We feel Cunningham’s world. It’s a place where his stopwatch is an unforgiving taskmaster in rehearsals. The rehearsal space is ramshackle but light filled – we imagine we can smell a mustiness from the crumbling walls. Later, Cunningham’s life partner-- the legendary composer John Cage—humorously catalogs tour adventures as his scramble for calories and umami to feed the dance-exhausted troupe.

And then, Klosty’s lens returns to add exclamation marks to these narratives.

Letting us know what we are really reading, and especially the rich insights that seem to barrel towards us through the asides. A fellow non-dancer might similarly come to this book thinking that the overseas tours must have been exciting. But then we learn most troupes had to expect a sizable bail out by troupe members after such tours. But it’s Klosty’s camera that goes beyond this statistical report by the company’s manager. He show us dancers strewn in the street, or waiting in phone booths wearing a mask, and an anonymous Merce reaching through the throng for his suitcase in the airport luggage return. Work, work, work-- we feel that longing for home.

Like much of the dance world itself, this collection of thoughts and photos does not attempt to reach or teach a general audience about dance. You need to come to this book with keen interest in contemporary dance. That said, this is a top pick book for several types of readers. Any student of late 20^th Century art and culture will likely find this a must –read—for the essays by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns alone, and/or the photos of the likes of Andy Warhol sets being put to use. Contemporary dance choreographers and serious students of all types of dance will especially appreciate Klosty’s performance photos as forensic studies in choreography and stagecraft greatness. If you are looking for a gift for an up and coming dancer, this should be short listed for sure.