Response to Introduction

This introduction mentioned a very famous choreographer named Merce Cunningham. I am a dancer, and in the past I have not only been academically educated on Cunningham's techniques but I have also tried his choreography. I must say that as a dancer I love the nontraditional forms of dance more than ballet. I have always been someone who can appreciate the commonplace, just like the other artists Duchamp, John Cage, Jean Tinguely, and Robert Rauschenberg. Placing a move like a "pedestrian" walk as many choreographers would say pays respect to the everyday movement while pushing the boundaries of what is considered choreography. Just like Cunningham pushes these boundaries, so does Duchamp in his work The Fountain. Taking a found object and putting your name on it is just like taking an everyday movement like walking and putting it in your choreography. Taking the found movement or object and calling it art is a statement of intention, not necessarily physical effort. As far as choreography goes, I believe that using commonplace motions like waving or walking in the right context creates a dance which respects reality in a creative way. At the Mpulse Ann Arbor dance camp I attended, I learned about Cunningham's techniques through an exercise in which we took five motions we used daily (i.e. brushing your teeth, waving, walking, sitting, etc) and choreographed a 30 second dance with them in it. It was very interesting to see how common motions could be used in such an artistic way.