Media / 1968

Place

This piece had an unmistakably dramatic quality; Cunningham’s own role had something of the neurotic intensity of such dances as his "Untitled Solo". At the end, he got into a large plastic bag and thrashed about. The dancers had no idea of this quality during rehearsals, but only realized it when they came to perform the dance. Gordon Mumma, who had no doubts about the meaning of the piece, composed his first score for Cunningham, "Mesa", “a duo for bandoneon and computer,” for which David Tudor made his own decisions in performance. Beverly Emmons, the company’s lighting designer during the interrim between the departure of Robert Rauschenberg as resident designer and the appointment of Jasper Johns as artistic advisor, made a set out of bits of wooden crates and newspapers; the women wore brief tunics of clear colored plastic over their leotards.

Details

Video Type

Performance

Dances

Place

Length

30 minutes

Director

Roger Englander

Design

Beverly Emmons

Producer

WNED (Buffalo), Eastern Educational Network

Distributor(s)

Alexander Street Press

COLOR/BW

B/W

Music

Mesa, Gordon Mumma

Dancers

Carolyn Brown, Merce Cunningham, Barbara Lloyd, Sandra Neels, Albert Reid, Peter Saul, Valda Setterfield, Gus Solomons jr, Rashaun Mitchell