by: Murrye Bernard Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Event: No Fixed Points in Space: Transferring Form, Time, and Narrative between Architecture and Performance
Location: Miller Theatre, Columbia University, 01.26.10
Panelists: Trevor Carlson — Executive Director, Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation; Michelle Fornabai — Principal, Ambo.infra Design; Paul Kaiser — Digital Artist & Writer, Open Ended Group; Paul Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky) — Artist, Composer & Writer; Tere O’Connor — Founder, Tere O’Connor Dance
Curator & Moderator: Annie K. Kwon — Architectural Designer, Kwon Studio
Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group
Presenters: Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation; Barnard College Dance Department; Columbia GSAPP; School of the Arts, Columbia University
Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group.
Columbia University
Dance choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) collaborated with visual artists throughout his career. For his final work, Nearly Ninety (2009), he chose to collaborate for the first time with an architect, Benedetta Tagliabue of Barcelona-based Enric Miralles – Benedetta Tagliabue | EMBT, who designed the multi-tier set. This collaboration inspired the creation of a series of public programs to explore the “intersection between architecture and the performing arts.” The first of the three symposia convened a variety of talents from the fields of dance, music, and architecture.
Cunningham was a proponent of Einstein’s proclamation that “there are no fixed points in space.” Moderator and architect Annie K. Kwon agreed, noting that architecture and dance “steal from each other; they shift and merge and become something unexpected.” Much of Cunningham’s work involved the dancer’s interaction with the set. Rather than utilizing conventional proscenium staging, he preferred three-dimensional sets with multiple centers of focus.
Nearly Ninety‘s set was progressive within the world of modern dance, but it was panned by many critics who referred to it as “clunky” or too “sci-fi.” His set for the production BIPED was decidedly more elegant. Dancers slipped through slits in the back curtains; and a patterned, metallic scrim hung in front of the stage to frame the dancers’ figures. The “volumetric apparitions” varied depending on the sightlines from the audience, according to digital artist Paul Kaiser.
Tere O’Connor, founder of Tere O’Connor Dance, explained that “dance involves ‘around and through’ and not just a frontal experience,” which is similar to the way one experiences and understands a building. O’Connor looks to architectural concepts as a resource for his own work; for example, Rammed Earth is a performance piece inspired by ancient building techniques and is adaptable to almost any space.
Between discussions, dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Repertory Understudy Group performed. The music was dissonant, composed of seemingly random and harsh sounds, and the dancers’ movements ranged from fluid to rigid. The choreography of the dance was not set to the music, and at times they would coincide by chance while at others they seem awkwardly paired.
DJ Spooky sees dance as a way of “interpreting the space around you.” The human form bends and morphs within its liquid, ambiguous surroundings. Through its limits and capabilities, the body strives to explore space, just as the materials and structural systems that comprise buildings attempt to capture it.
Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.