the company takes a bow on center stage after it's last performance

…tonight at the Park Avenue Armory was a New Years Eve spectacle on three stages spread through out the Drill Hall (where I did an infinitely more modest production of Animal Drills four years ago for the Whitney Biennial with just a circle of people in the center watching then performing the Animal Scores danced by 12 dancer friends) where we were treated to a mash-up of scores from the past 60 years, performed for the last time as the company disbanded at the final ovation which was long and warm – from an audience comprised mostly of Company family – such as Charlie Atlas seated in front of me – and then, rightly enough, it was to the dance floor where 2012 was danced in.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company; Choreography by Merce Cunningham; Arranged by Robert Swinston; Music by David Behrman, John King, Takehisa Kosugi, and Christian Wolf; Décor by Daniel Arsham

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to New York City—its home since its founding in 1953—for six historic final performances at the Armory, culminating a two-year farewell Legacy Tour that brought the Company to more than 50 destinations worldwide. For this last engagement, the Company will perform a series of Events created especially for the occasion across three stages in the Armory’s dramatic drill hall. The Company has mounted these signature site-specific choreographic collages in unusual locations around the world throughout its nearly 60-year history, including two previous engagements in the Armory’s drill hall, a 1983 performance and the 2009 public memorial for the legendary dancer and choreographer. The Park Avenue Armory Events will feature the last-ever music commission by the MCDC Music Committee and a specially commissioned décor by visual artist Daniel Arsham, who will fill the drill hall with massive suspended “clouds” comprised of thousands of individual colored spheres. This momentous engagement marks the final opportunity for audiences to experience first-hand the work of Merce Cunningham as performed by the Company he personally trained and to celebrate Cunningham’s lifetime of creative achievement with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company before it disbands.