Merce Cunningham's troupe played one of its
farewell performances last night in Durham.
He used the I Ching to determine the order
in which his dances would be performed and
often did not tell his dancers until immediately
before showtime what they would be dancing.
His early stage manager was
artist Robert Rauschenberg.
Cunningham and his composer collaborator
John Cage believed that music for dance should
be composed separate from the choreography.
He believed in using what he described as
"chance operations"
in dance, as he felt this would
lead to new artistic discoveries.
