美国国家公共电台 NPR 100 Dances For 100 Years Of Merce Cunningham

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This week was the centennial of Merce Cunningham's birth. The late choreographer¹'s revolutionary dance legacy² was commemorated³ Tuesday with special performances in London, New York and Los Angeles called "Night Of 100 Solos." Jeff Lunden went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to find out more.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE⁴: The studio was almost eerily⁵ silent, save for the sound of dancers walking, running and jumping as 25 performers rehearsed the program. They were ballet dancers, modern dancers, hip-hop dancers, most of whom had never performed Cunningham's rigorous, idiosyncratic choreography in public. After the run-through, Patricia Lent, who staged the Brooklyn performance, gave notes to the dancers.

PATRICIA LENT: So yeah - sooner - sooner - like, as the leg is coming in...

LUNDEN: Lent danced with Merce Cunningham for ten years. "Night Of 100 Solos" was her idea.

LENT: The idea of 100 for the centennial - and the solos come from all the different decades of Merce's work. So the earliest one we have is from the early '50s. And the latest one we have is from his last dance in 2009.

LUNDEN: Cunningham had a unique vision, beginning with his relationship to music. He did the choreography without it, then brought all the production elements - music, costumes and scenery - together at the performance. Ken⁶ Tabachnick, who runs the Cunningham Trust, says it was an idea the choreographer worked on with composer John Cage, who was Cunningham's most frequent collaborator⁷, as well as his life partner.

KEN TABACHNICK: They developed a structure that people refer to as common time, where the different elements would be created discreetly⁸ and individually apart from each other and only come together in the common time of the performance.

KEITH SABADO: Cunningham technique has its own music. You just have to find it, and then you have to put your own body into it.

LUNDEN: Keith Sabado has danced with Mark Morris and Lucinda Childs. So he normally matches steps to music. He was one of the dancers selected for the Brooklyn show.

SABADO: There's a lot of stillness and an explosion, lots of juxtaposed, silent moments and then moments where they're just crazy, crazy, crazy. But also, you can see when you watch the work that the body parts are all correlated to each other. But they may be doing very different things.

LUNDEN: Body parts doing different things at the same time are another essential aspect of Cunningham's technique, says Ken Tabachnick.

TABACHNICK: Cunningham separated the individual limbs and made them independent participants in the movement and technique. So the hands, oftentimes, or the arms were completely separate in terms of their movement from what the legs were doing or the lower half the body was doing.

LUNDEN: Which can be really challenging for dancers who aren't used to it. Sara Mearns is a principal for the New York City Ballet.

SARA MEARNS: It's finding the strength between your legs and your back together because, when you land, you sometimes have to land and stay there in a plie, in an arabesque⁹ for, like, eight counts. And I don't have to do that in ballet.

LUNDEN: Mearns says she's been fascinated by the way Patricia Lent has staged the event with sometimes two, three, five dancers doing different solos at once.

MEARNS: If someone's, like, moving so slow, it makes the other person solo moving fast look even faster.

LUNDEN: The unexpected connections and dialogue between the dances and the other elements came clear at the performance in Brooklyn.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

LUNDEN: The 25 dancers in solid-colored unitards and pantsuits performed their solos with newly composed music before not only a sold-out house but audiences watching the performance live online. Dancer Keith Sabado says he's been grateful to be part of the Cunningham centennial tribute.

SABADO: I think of him as a father figure in modern dance terms. And I really appreciate that I'm getting this opportunity to commune with him, to converse¹⁰ with him again.

LUNDEN: And viewers can commune with Merce Cunningham by watching videos of the Brooklyn, London and LA performances at mercecunningham.org. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in Brooklyn.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 choreographer   

n.编舞者

参考例句：

• She is a leading professional belly dancer, choreographer, and teacher. 她既是杰出的专业肚皮舞演员，也是舞蹈设计者和老师。 来自辞典例句
• It'stands aside, my choreographer of grace, and blesses each finger and toe. 它站在一旁，我优雅的舞蹈指导，并祝福每个指尖与脚尖。 来自互联网

2 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 commemorated   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Lincoln commemorated the soldiers killed in the battle in his address. 林肯在演说中表扬阵亡将士。 来自辞典例句
• You'll be commemorated for killing a spy, and be specially discharged. 你们每杀一个间谍将会被记录到特殊档案。 来自电影对白

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 eerily   

adv.引起神秘感或害怕地

参考例句：

• It was nearly mid-night and eerily dark all around her. 夜深了，到处是一片黑黝黝的怪影。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The vast volcanic slope was eerily reminiscent of a lunar landscape. 开阔的火山坡让人心生怪异地联想起月球的地貌。 来自辞典例句

6 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

7 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

8 discreetly   

ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地

参考例句：

• He had only known the perennial widow, the discreetly expensive Frenchwoman. 他只知道她是个永远那么年轻的寡妇，一个很会讲排场的法国女人。
• Sensing that Lilian wanted to be alone with Celia, Andrew discreetly disappeared. 安德鲁觉得莉莲想同西莉亚单独谈些什么，有意避开了。

9 arabesque   

n.阿拉伯式花饰；adj.阿拉伯式图案的

参考例句：

• I like carpets with arabesque patterns.我喜欢带有阿拉伯式花饰的地毯。
• The Arabesque solution is the answer to a designer's desire for uniqueness.阿拉伯风为设计师渴望独一无二给出了答案。

10 converse   

vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反

参考例句：

• He can converse in three languages.他可以用3种语言谈话。
• I wanted to appear friendly and approachable but I think I gave the converse impression.我想显得友好、平易近人些,却发觉给人的印象恰恰相反。