VORTEX Program
PROGRAM
A historic photomontage assembled by cinematographer David Perry, featuring John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and the artists with whom they worked, precedes the program. Thanks to the Merce Cunningham Trust, the John Cage Trust, the Other Minds Archive, and RadiOM for their generosity in making this program possible.
Speech Radio (1955)
Audio clip: KPFA Radio, Berkeley, California, Charles Amirkhanian, August 12, 1992
Suite for Toy Piano (1948 Black Mountain College)
Fads & Fancies in the Academy (1940) (A Gentle Satire on Progressive Education)
- 1. Axioms
- 1a. The pupil is eager to learn
- 1b. The pupil is constitutionally lazy
- 1c. We deal with the total child
- 2. A Short Historical Sketch
- 2a. Reactionaries
- 2b. Revolutionaries—Pitched Battle
- 3. A Short Historical Sketch
- 3a. Pessimist
- 3b. Optimist
COMPANY ROSE
CHOREOGRAPHY: Marsha Barsky & Erin Law in collaboration with dancers
“Lost” work, created by John Cage and choreographer Marian Van Tuyl, Mills College, Oakland,
California. Restaged by Barsky and Law, informed by Van Tuyl’s personal notes, historic 16mm film
footage, and conversations with archivist Joanna G. Harris, PhD. Fads and Fancies is dedicated to
Marian Van Tuyl, her daughter Gail Campbell, Executor of the Van Tuyl Estate, and Ms Harris, who is
present for tonight’s performance.
Film clip: Ecoute (Listen) John Cage interviewed, 1992; Producer: Jacques Bidou; Director: Miroslav
Sebestik. Courtesy Jacques Bidou and Centre Georges Pompidou, JBA Productions, Paris.
Inlets (1977)
Film clip: I’ve Got a Secret CBS Television, February 24, 1960, John Cage, contestant and performer. Courtesy Laura Kuhn
and The John Cage Trust.
Water Walk (1959) for solo television performer
INTERMISSION
Film Clip: Mondays with Merce™ Excerpts from Episode 015 The Prepared Mind: John Cage and David Tudor. Commentary from Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Gordon Mmma, and Christian Wolff. Courtesy of Kevin Carr and the Merce Cunningham Trust.
MinEvent
VORTEX
And former dancers of the
MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY
CHOREOGRAPHY: Merce Cunningham STAGED BY: Jennifer Goggans Amores
The event idea was originally prompted by our being presented with an unusual performing area in
Vienna, 1964: an open room with the audience on three sides (space); a situation where an intermission
would have been awkward and uncomfortable (time); and a “stage” not equipped nor allowing for
conventional arrangements of musicians, lighting, exits and entrances, curtains, etc. In order to be
flexible in our approach to these, the décor has been the building itself with whatever appurtenances it
might contain. If we want to be flexible, then we must not preclude the theatre as it has been known and
is still commonly used—a playing space in front of spectators. –Merce Cunningham
A MinEvent is an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts from the work of Merce Cunningham. Each
MinEvent is unique. This MinEvent was constructed and staged by Jennifer Goggans expressly for this
performance with VORTEX. This performance is made possible with the permission and support of the
Merce Cunningham Trust.
Amores (1943)
Child of Tree (1975) layered with
The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs (1942) & Nowth Upon Nacht (1984)
Credo In Us (1942) Originally subtitled for a satirical dance drama as A Suburban Idyll