Country of Origin United States
Description This program included the world premiere of “Minutiae,” the dance that initiated the collaboration between Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg, which was to continue through the 1964 world tour of the company. Rauschenberg had no title: the program simply stated that he designed the costumes and lighting (though the costumes for “Minutiae” were by company member Remy Charlip). For “Minutiae” Rauschenberg designed and made a free-standing object (later called the first of his Combines). The dancers moved through it, around it, and under it. The choreography, made by a complex and detailed chance process, consisted of “small, short, abrupt movements [derived] from an observation…of people walking in the streets,” or so a program note stated, though Cunningham later admitted it was not entirely true. The music was from an existing work by Cage, Music for Piano 1 through 20 (the music for Cunningham's Suite for Five is from the same source.)
Identifier 1954f.02176
