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Birth of Merce Cunningham
Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington -
The Beginning
Merce Cunningham starts to study dance at the age of 12 -
Cornish School of Fine Arts
Cunningham starts school at the Cornish School of Fine arts where he changed his major from theater to dance. This was also where he met his life partner and, later, business partner, John Cage -
Choreographing
Inspired by Martha Graham whose company he was a part of, Cunningham began to start choreographing his own works. -
The Debut
Cunningham first began to debut his works, such as 'A Root of Unfocus' -
Going Solo
Cunningham leaves Martha Graham's dance company to work on his own stuff with partner, John Cage -
New Techniques
Utilized his newly developed techniques called “choreography by chance” in his dance 'Sixteen Dances for Soloist and Company of Three'. Choreography by chance was a technique that used isolated movements are assigned by random chance in an assigned sequence. An example of this choreography would be the act of flipping a coin. -
'Suite By Chance'
Choreographed by Cunningham, it was the first modern dance to ever be choreographed to an electronic score. -
The Company
Cunningham started his own company, employing many people including his partner, John Cage. -
The Tour
Cunningham and his company go on their first international tour -
Going Into Film
Cunningham abandons his company's repertory to start working more with film and videotape for choreography -
'Locale'
'Locale' was the first film that Cunningham created for his choreography -
The Early 1990s
Arthritis takes Cunningham away from the dance stage. However, he begins to experiment with animated computer programming for choreography -
John Cage's death
John Cage dies in New York, New York -
Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale
Merce Cunningham is awarded the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperial prize for theater/film. This is one of the arts' most prestigious awards -
Death
Cunningham dies in New York, New York
