Merce Cunningham Lives!

We saw the company CNDC from Angers, France.   It is directed by Robert Swinston, who for a long time worked with Merce Cunningham.   He was hired a few years ago (after the Cunningham company dissolved) in France, and has been busy teaching Cunningham technique to his small company.   What we saw was an "Event", a stitching together of a number of excerpts from Cunningham pieces dating from before 1990 into a continuous whole.  This is very similar to what was done in the final performances of the Cunningham company. (I recommend the DVD of those performances very highly).   It was accompanied by new music performed by Gelsey Bell and John King.   To see this piece was to marvel at the genius of Cunningham's choreography; consistently inventive, formally complex, always involving.  And it is, I think, still very modern; it doesn't tell stories; it's all about the movement.   And the movement doesn't proceed or transform in conventional ways; things are often disjunct.  And because it is independent of the music, the choreography's own rhythms predominate, much to their advantage.
The music as performed was effective; though, I would guess, much more avant-garde than the audience might normally like.   The dancers, I have to say, were good, but not really up to the standards of the Cunningham company of the past.   But that didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the choreography.   What did annoy me, though, was the decor.   It was a series of Matisse-like fabric hangings by Matisse's granddaughter.   That was OK, but someone had the idea of having them be in motion all the time by using high powered fans to make them flutter in the breeze;  not only was the movement distracting, but the loud noise of the fans was extremely annoying.