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Septet / [choreography, Merce Cunningham ; filmed by Heikki Seppälä].
- Format:
- Video
- Series:
- Academic Video Online
- Standardized Title:
- Septet (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
- Language:
- No linguistic content
- Genre:
- Dance.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (17 minutes)
- Place of Publication:
- New York, NY : Merce Cunningham Trust, 1964.
- Language Note:
- In English.
- In Finnish.
- Original language in Finnish.
- Original language in English.
- System Details:
- data file
- Summary:
- The title Septet refers not to the number of dancers but to the seven-part structure and stylistic variations of Eric Satie's score entitled Trois morceaux en forme de poire. The piece was choreographed for six dancers, with each of the seven movements ranging from grave to playful, as in the somber lyrical duet with Cunningham and Carolyn Brown, to the comical "solo of a desperate clown". The ballet was later described by Cage as "an experience that one is unable to resolve, leaving one, as a dream often does, uncertain of its meaning." Cunningham chose no scenery and simple costuming, with each of the three couples dressed in basic, unadorned fitted tops and pants. This performance of Septet was filmed by Finnish filmmaker Heikki Seppälä as part of a program that also featured Story, Night Wandering and Antic Meet. The program was broadcast live before a Finnish audience from a theater in Helsinki during the Cunningham Dance Company's 1964 World Tour. The film was recently located in the Finnish YLE broadcast archives and digitized from the original kinescope. It is the only motion picture to capture Cunningham performing Story and Septet, and the only film of Night Wandering and Antic Meet performed by Cunningham and the original cast on a proscenium stage rather than adapted for a television studio.
- Participant:
- Merce Cunningham, Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Barbara Lloyd, William Davis, Steve Paxton, dancers
- Notes:
- Title from resource description page (viewed March 07, 2017).
- Recorded Swedish Theatre.
- Contains:
- Satie, Erik, 1866-1925. Morceaux en forme de poire.
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