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Chance and circumstance : twenty years with Cage and Cunningham
- Author
- Brown, Carolyn, 1927-
- Title
- Chance and circumstance : twenty years with Cage and Cunningham / Carolyn Brown.
- Format
- Book
- Edition
- 1st ed.
- Published
- New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
- Description
- vi, 645 p., [40] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
- URL
- <Table of contents only> http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0712/2006048799.html <Contributor biographical information> http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0727/2006048799-b.html <Sample text> http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0727/2006048799-s.html <Publisher description> http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0727/2006048799-d.html
- Notes
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 612) and index.
- Contents
-
- Beginnings
- Black Mountain I
- New York: autumn 1952
- New York: winter/spring 1953
- Black Mountain II
- New York: autumn 1953
- On the move: 1954-1955
- The first touring years
- The lean years
- The VW years
- The end of the beginning
- Connecticut: summer 1958
- Europe, at last!
- "Success is dust!"
- Moving into the sixties
- Connecticut: summer 1960
- Europe again: Venice 1960
- Europe, continued: 1960
- Troubling times: 1960-1961
- Connecticut: summer 1961
- Moving ahead
- Ups and downs
- Some ventures afield
- World tour / part I
- World tour / part II
- World tour / part III
- World tour / part IV
- World tour / part V
- Another beginning
- Full steam ahead
- Where from here?
- A professional company
- Some subsidy at last
- Mixed signals
- The beginning of the end
- Last chapter
- Postscript: New York: spring 2004.
- Summary
- This long-awaited memoir is an intimate chronicle of a crucial era in modern dance: the story of Brown's own remarkable career, of the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and of the two brilliant, iconoclastic, and forward-thinking artists at its center--Merce Cunningham and John Cage. From its inception in the 1950s until her departure in the 1970s, Brown was a major dancer in the company and part of the vibrant artistic community of downtown New York. She describes the exhilaration--and dire financial straits--of the company's early days, when composer Cage was musical director and Robert Rauschenberg designed lighting, sets and costumes; and the struggle for acceptance of their controversial, avant-garde dance. She explores Cunningham's technique, choreography, and experimentation with compositional procedures influenced by Cage. And she probes the personalities of these two men: the reticent, moody, often secretive Cunningham, and the effusive, fun-loving, enthusiastic Cage.--From publisher description.
- Subject headings
- Brown, Carolyn, 1927- Cunningham, Merce. Cage, John.
- Kinsey subjects
- Biographies of men. Biographies of dancers. Modern dance. Musicians.
- ISBN
- 0394401913 (alk. paper) 9780394401911 (alk. paper)