Category Archives: Developing Your Creative Practice

Young beautiful dancer in beige swimwear dancing on lilac background

Developing My Creative Practice: Cunningham Technique

The first part of my DYCP activity kicked off with learning  about the Cunningham dance style from Rosie Price  at the Kings’ International Ballet Academy. And quite a shock to the system it was! After 15 years of being a ballet musician and tailoring my music to fit the dynamics of the steps, the Cunningham aesthetics challenged most of what I knew about music for dance:

…”counting is an aid toward freedom, rather than a discipline towards mechanization. A use of time-structure also frees the music into space, making the connection between the dance and the music one of individual autonomy connected at structural points. The result is the dance is free to act as it chooses, as is the music. The music doesn’t have to work itself to death to underline the dance, or the dance create havoc in trying to be as flashy as the music.”  Merce Cunningham (Space, Time and Dance - Trans/Formations 1, pp. 150-151, Wittenborn & Co, 1952)

Yes, Merce is giving dance musicians a carte blanche. No pre-conceptions for mood or dance dynamics needed, only some co-incidence of tempo and counts. Dancers were challenged to jump, create sharp accents or fluid movements often without the aid of musical support - a polar opposite to the relationship between movement and music in ballet.

I have spent some time over the years collating ideas that dancers and dance teachers have about what they consider to be suitable music for contemporary dance class. These range included:

- something totally different to what you hear in ballet class

- NO tunes

- some tunes are OK

- I don’t want to feel like I’m doing ballet.

As a musician, this used to stump me.  Being at Kings, I made more progress in simply by learning about the Cunningham aesthetic itself and not worrying about the genre of music used. According to Cunningham, ANY genre of music was fair game  and therefore usable – but every dancer  / teacher / choreographer will have their personal preferences. In Merce’s own words:  “I don’t care what you play as long as the rhythm and phrase …is clear”

My 2022 New Year’s resolution is to spend 20 mins every Monday watching a video from this very useful series “Mondays With Merce”Video #5: Company Class  has helpful takeaways to dispel myths about what music is suitable for Cunningham class and we get to hear from both Merce Cunningham himself as well as Pat Richter, his long-time pianist.

For those who are interested there are some enlightening articles about Cunningham Technique on Merce Cunningham Trust website.

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Music notes and old book on wooden table background in morning l

Developing My Creative Practice: Composition and Contemporary Dance

Over the years, I dabbled in composing small amounts of new music for Rhythm Circle classes and ballet exercises. Nothing substantial – a few phrases here and there to illustrate specific musical or dance elements. This started to snowball during the UK lockdowns when I needed more original music to share with my students for Zoom classes. In August 2021, I was finally able to develop my composition skills with the help of a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from the Arts Council England. For the last few months, I’ve had to great fortune to have my mentor and teacher Karen Maciver to guide me on this new journey.

My current explorations as a composer is heavily shaped by Contemporary Dance: after training to be a ballet pianist, I wanted to learn how to create music for the various contemporary dance styles. The wonderful staff and students of the Kings International Ballet Academy are hosting a short residency for me. I’ve never lost the habit of watching class since my  days at Scottish Ballet. Can’t begin express how much it feeds the soul to be able to be back in the dance studio, not focused on playing but simply watching class and learning new things.

In the next few months, my plan is to learn about the Cunningham, Graham and Limon dance styles and to compose music for each of these styles.