“Westbeth” was Cunningham’s first video collaboration with Charles Atlas, and the first video project to be made at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio on the eleventh floor of Westbeth. Cunningham, who had little experience working with the camera, used the project to learn about video. The dance was structured in six sections. “For each dancing section,” he explained, “we asked questions about video.” The questions concerned issues such as changing from close-ups to long shots, cutting from one camera to another, and keeping multiple dancers doing different movement in the frame in full figure. “We took several months over these questions,” Cunningham recalled, “it was the only way to get involved with video.” The costumes were by Mark Lancaster, after the design by Jasper Johns for “Un jour ou deux.” The music was by John Cage. The video was first screened on February 14, 1975 at Westbeth in New York City.
Media /
1975