Fifty-three years ago....
On September 5th, 1972, Merce Cunningham and Dance Company performedOpen Air Theatre Eventin Shiraz, Iran. This Event, the first of two performances at the Festival of the Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis, fell on John Cage’s sixtieth birthday. As part of the evening, Cage read his stories fromIndeterminacy,beginning, as usual, by opening a bottle of champagne. “When John popped the cork,” Carolyn Brown wrote, “David Tudor played ‘Happy Birthday’ on a toy piano.”
You can hear Cage’s music, organized by Jeffrey Lependorf, on September 20th in the Round Barn Dance Series at Churchtown Dairynear Hudson, NY, accompanied by a CunninghamMinEventstaged by Brandon Collwes (2006-2011). Cage’s birthday also marks the opening ofThe Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center's exhibition,Points in Space: Performance at Black Mountain College,which runs through January 10, 2026. The show – named after Merce's 1986 workPoints in Spaceand his favorite Einstein quote – will bring togetherarchival material and contemporary work that echoes BMC’s radical, interdisciplinary spirit. A new chapbook focused on Merce will be published as part of the exhibition.