digressions: a blog

I’ve been talking to a new friend a lot about dance lately, and subsequently have become increasingly interested in the history. Like every other art student, I learned about Merce Cunningham in school, who of course did some famous collaborations with John Cage. Did you know John Cage was an “avid amateur mycologist?”

Anyways, while wasting my work day YouTube-ing, I found the above video, which I haven’t seen in a few years. I remembered why it was one of my favorite moments in contemporary art history. It demonstrates the perfect collision of mainstream culture and the avant-garde. The audience doesn’t know how to respond to all the weirdness in front of them, and the nervous laughter ends up really informing and reinforcing Cage’s ideas about music and audience participation. His body posture, voice and mannerisms in the beginning are amazing. Read a little bit more about the video and context here.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt of Merce Cunningham’s Septet, 1964, courtesy the mighty ubuweb: