Chance and Circumstance

Chance and circumstance is the title of dancer Carolyn Brown’s new book. Rather than being just s memoir, it is a gripping correction of a myth. Having been one of Cunningham’s dancers for years, Douglas Dunn finds his own memories confirmed.

The silent world of human movement. What is there to say about it? Anything? Merce Cunningham, spare of speech but eloquent, often leans suggestively into the phrase “the experience of dancing.

” As if the doing and viewing of the art form are distinct from the verbal consciousness by means of which we negotiate our daily lives. As if framed gesture might release us from time, from memory and anticipation, bring us to a nowness wordthought cannot.

Is there, then, irony in writing a book about such a man and his work? Yes: mild or piquant, depending. Would its author, Carolyn Brown, be aware of this contradiction, of the delicacy of building a bridge where one might not be wanted? With-out question.

During her early years in his company she wrote a letter disagreeing with some administrative decisions and was called a “meddler.” Whatever the risks of looking back, she has taken them, and her near six-hundred pages are a starburst of light thrown ...