Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham, born in Centralia, Washington, received his first formal dance and theater training at the Cornish School (now Cornish College) in Seattle. From 1939 to 1945, he was a soloist in the company of Martha Graham. During that time, he began to choreograph independently, presenting his first New York solo concert with John Cage in April 1944. He continued to present annual concerts, by himself or with an ad hoc group of dancers, until the formation of Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1953. Since that time Cunningham has choreographed over one hundred and fifty works for his company.

He has also choreographed two works for New York City Ballet: The Seasons (John Cage/Isamu Noguchi, 1947), and a version of Summerspace (Morton Feldman/Robert Rauschenberg, original 1958, NYCB version 1966). Un Jour ou Deux (John Cage/Jasper Johns, 1973), an evening-length work commissioned by the Paris Autumn Festival for the ballet of the Paris Opéra, was presented first in 1973 and again in January 1986 in a revised version. Cunningham's work Duets entered the repertory of American Ballet Theatre in May 1982 in New York City. His works have also been included in the repertories of numerous ballet and modern dance companies around the world, among them the Boston Ballet; Charleroi/Danses; Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm; GRCOP (the experimental wing of the Paris Opéra Ballet); Ohio Ballet; Pacific Northwest Ballet; Pennsylvania Ballet; Rambert Dance Company, London; Repertory Dance Theatre, Salt Lake City; and Théâtre du Silence, France. In June 1990, Points in Space was revived by the Paris Opéra Ballet. Breakers, commissioned by the Kennedy Center's Ballet Commissioning Project for the Boston Ballet, also entered the repertory of Merce Cunningham Dance Company in March 1994.

Cunningham collaborated with the filmmaker Charles Atlas on three original works for video: Westbeth (1974), Blue Studio: Five Segments (WNET/TV Lab, 1975), and Fractions I and II (1978); and three filmdances: Locale (1979), Channels/Inserts (1981), and Coast Zone (1983). Fractions, Locale, Channels/Inserts, and Coast Zone were all subsequently remade for stage presentation. Deli Commedia, a videodance made in collaboration with Elliot Caplan, who had succeeded Atlas as filmmaker-in-residence, was presented on the PBS Great Performances series in November 1985. Points in Space, the most recent original videodance by Caplan and Cunningham, was co-produced by the Cunningham Dance Foundation and the BBC and shot in London in May 1986. Points in Space has also been remade for the stage. Cunningham and Caplan again collaborated on Changing Steps, which was taped in October 1988 at the Sundance Institute and the Osmond Studio, in Utah, and has been broadcast worldwide. In September 1990 Caplan's film portrait, Cage/Cunningham, produced and distributed by the Cunningham Dance Foundation, received its world premiere at the Cinémathèque de la Danse in Paris. In December 1990 Cunningham and Caplan collaborated on Beach Birds For Camera, a film version of a dance choreographed that year.

Cunningham's other activities include classes and workshops at the Merce Cunningham Studio, and workshops and lectures both in the United States and abroad, most recently (with Robert Swinston) a workshop in Cunningham technique in Moscow, March 1995, sponsored by the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Cunningham has collaborated on two books about his work: Changes: Notes on Choreography, with Frances Starr (Something Else Press, New York, 1968), and The Dancer and the Dance, interviews with Jacqueline Lesschaeve (Marion Boyars, New York and London 1985). The latter, originally published in French, has also been translated into German and Italian. Merce Cunningham/Dancing in Space and Time, a collection of critical essays edited by Richard Kostelanetz, was published in 1992 by a cappella books. Cunningham has received two Guggenheim Fellowships for choreography, in 1954 and 1959; the Dance Magazine Award, 1960; the Medal of the Society for the Advancement of Dancing in Sweden, 1964; Gold Medal for Choreographic Invention at the Fourth International Festival of Dance, Paris 1966; an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Illinois, 1972; the New York State Award, 1975; the Capezio Award, 1977; the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime contribution to dance, 1982. Also in that year, Cunningham was made Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. In 1983, he received the Mayor of New York's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, and in 1984 was inducted as an Honorary Member into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In June 1985, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the following December he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors at the White House. Cunningham's dance Pictures was given the Laurence Olivier award for best new dance production in London in 1985. In October 1987, Cunningham received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. In January 1988, he was awarded the Dance/USA National Honor in New York City. At the end of his company's residency in Arles in July 1989, he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by President Mitterrand of France, and he received the Porselli Prize in Cremona, Italy in April 1990.

In September 1990, Cunningham was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bush in a ceremony at the White House, and in October he was the recipient of the Digital Dance Premier Award presented in London. Cunningham received the Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters at their conference in New York City in December 1990. In May 1993, the Wexner Prize was awarded to John Cage and Merce Cunningham at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH. In June 1993, Cunningham was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, NY and in July 1993, he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in El Escorial, Spain. In October 1993, he was given a "Bessie" Award presented by New York's Dance Theater Workshop in recognition for outstanding creative achievement for his dance, Enter. Cunningham also received the 1993 London Dance and Performance award for Best Performance by a Visiting Artist for the Company's Events series at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Autumn of 1992. The International Society of Performing Arts Administrators (ISPAA) honored Cunningham with the Tiffany Award in December 1993. For Cunningham's 75th birthday, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York City proclaimed April 16, 1994 "Merce Cunningham Day." In May 1995, he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and in July 1995, Merce Cunningham received the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale.