Hudson Valley Project

Cunningham Dance Foundation, in partnership with the Dia Art Foundation, Bard College, and the John Cage Trust at Bard College, has established a unique and exciting presence in the Hudson Valley through an array of startling performances, innovative residency initiatives, and far-reaching outreach opportunities.

Merce Cunningham choreographs eight of his signature site-specific Events, one per residency during the two-year project, each within a different gallery of Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries. As part of Beacon Event performances, a group of composer/performers will present their original works. This group will also hold free concerts in the Merce Cunningham Studio as part of the Experiments in the Studio series.

Next at Dia:Beacon

Next Performance
Saturday December 6 and Sunday December 7, 2008 @ 2 PM

Chamberlain Galleries

Musicians: Takehisa Kosugi, Curtis Bahn, Keiko Uenishi, and Alex Waterman

Residency Activities at the Dia:Beacon

MCDC joins with Dia Art Foundation, Bard College, John Cage Trust at Bard College, and Event composer/performers to create a series of activiites surrounding each Beacon Event.

John Cage Reading Room

John Cage at Mountain Lake: Watercolors, Rocks, and Smoke

Sunday, December 5—15, 2008, 11am—4pm

This John Cage Trust presentation will be a display of archive materials from the John Cage Trust and the Mountain Lake Workshop, co-curated by Ray Kass, founder and director of the Mountain Lake Workshop (he’s also Professor Emeritus of Art at Virginia Tech, and author of John Cage: New River Watercolors, published by the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond,VA).

The presentation to be held in the Bookshop Library deals with the Mountain Lake Workshop, a collaborative, community-based art project drawing on the customs, and on environmental and technological resources of the New River Valley and the Appalachian region, and more specifically with John Cage’s participation in the workshop. It was there that Cage created his New River Watercolors in 1983, 1988, 1989 & 1990.

Family Day:

A movement-based tour for children and their parents

Sunday, December 7, 2008, 12pm

In conjunction with the Company's residency at Dia:Beacon, MCDC’s Educational Department will partner with Dia’s educational program to provide movement-based tours of various artworks in the museum. Participants will create their own simple dance “events” based on their observations. Children ages 6 and above are encouraged to attend and must be accompanied by an adult.

Free with museum admission. Reservations are suggested,

Call 845.440.0100 x33

For directions call 845.440.0100 x45 or visit the Dia:Beacon web site.

Past Beacon Events:

September 30, 2007 in the Andy Warhol Gallery

   Musicians: David Behrman, John King, Takehisa Kosgui,   

   Christian Wolff

January 12 & 13, 2008 in the Walter De Maria Galleries

   Musicians: Fast Forward, John King, George Lewis,

   Zeena Parkins

May 18, 2008 in the Bruce Nauman Galleries

   Musicians: David Behrman, Miguel Frasconi,

   Marina Rosenfeld, Richard Teitelbaum

July 5 & 6, 2008 in the Richard Serra Galleries

   Musicians: Newton Armstrong, Maria Chavez,

   David Linton, Stephan Moore

Click an image above to view it larger. To see many more MCDC images, visit the Merce Cunningham Flickr Galleries.

MCDC's Hudson Valley Project, in partnership with the Dia Art Foundation, Bard College, and The John Cage Trust at Bard College, has been made possible, in part, through major support from The New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors. Additional support has been provided by Melissa and Robert Soros, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and through public support from the National Endowment for the Arts which believes that a great nation deserves great art.