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Lucky audiences saw Merce Cunningham’s ever-astonishing work at Zellerbach Hall on May 4th and 5th. The latter show opened with a Bay Area premiere, his 2001 "Way Station." The set featured five tall pod-like (Hans Arp-like) sculptures by Charles Long in an Op orange/lavendar/mint palette. The dancers looked tiny among these sculptures, grouping and ungrouping with the logic of bugs, now making their ways randomly, now suddenly coming together with urgent but mysterious purpose, mating insistently, meaninglessly—all pulsing to the rubbing, whirring, pounding, clicking of Takehisa Kosugi’s music. The 1995 "Windows" was designed by John Cage—sweeping scallops of light on the floor and clouds behind. The enormously demanding choreography was performed to the virtually steady hum of Emanuel Dimas de Mela Pimanta’s music. The closing 1968 "Rainforest" was a conceptual triumph: David Tudor’s honking, drilling, clanging music; Andy Warhol’s huge mylar pillows suspended and waving balletically from the stage floor, tinsel-y, giving the dancers obstacles to kick with great percussive wallops. All in all, like a ballet on acid. Cunningham’s curtain call was a zany, nostalgic ‘60’s finale, with silver pillows batted aloft into the house. All night, Aaron Copp’s lighting was a joy for visibility and sensibility. |
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