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Merce Cunningham Dance Company: Ocean
Experience Merce Cunningham and John Cage's monumental Ocean like never before-inside a granite quarry 100 feet below the earth's surface!
Thursday-Saturday, September 11-13, 2008 @ 8:00 p.m.
Rainbow Quarry, Waite Park, Minnesota
Due to the amazing response to Ocean, tickets are sold out. Thank you for your interest and we hope you can attend our other 2008-2009 Fine Arts Series events.
Click here to download the master class registration form for Wednesday, September 10 at the College of Saint Benedict.
Presented with the opportunity to stage Ocean on a scale grander than he’d ever thought possible—at the bottom of a granite quarry in central Minnesota, under nighttime skies, in the round, surrounded by a 150-piece orchestra that includes the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, all captured for the ages in a five-camera shoot by renowned filmmaker Charles Atlas—Merce Cunningham leapt at the chance. “I expect it to be absolutely fascinating—for us and for the audience,” the legendary choreographer says. “We’ve given performances in many different types of locations, but I think we will share an experience that is singular.” Now 89, he’s guiding his full company of 14 dancers with renewed vigor through daily rehearsals, excited to reincarnate the last work he created with composer/poet John Cage, his longtime collaborator. Cage died in 1992, before he could finish the score and see Ocean on the stage. Audiences will hear Andrew Culver’s orchestral score, inspired by Cage’s initial work on the project, and an electronic score by David Tudor.
“This is his largest work, and it has such sentimental value because of his relationship with Cage,” says Trevor Carlson, executive director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. “We were resistant to remounting this because it seemed so difficult to capture on camera with an audience present. But if we didn’t remount it, it would just have been a memory.” At 90 minutes (performed without intermission), Ocean remains Cunningham’s longest work, and since its premiere, it has been produced only rarely because of the physical and technical requirements of the piece.
As people are shuttled down the winding roads leading to the bottom of Rainbow Quarry 150 feet below, they will emerge not into a theater but an environment of stage, seating, and scenic design specially built to outfit this most remarkable organic setting. On the rim above the seating structure, the orchestra will fully encircle the audience, which encircles the dancers in the quarry bowl.
This landmark statewide collaboration is coproduced by the Walker Art Center and the Cunningham Dance Foundation, with the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict and Northrop Dance at the University of Minnesota.
Media sponsor 
Coproduced by the Walker Art Center and the Cunningham Dance Foundation, with the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict and Northrop Dance at the University of Minnesota. Major support is generously provided by Sage and John Cowles and the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Presenting program. Additional support provided by The Minneapolis Foundation: Goodale Arts Fund, Leni D. & David Moore, Jr. / The Moore Family Fund for the Arts, and the Dale Schatzlein and Emily Maltz Fund; HRK Foundation: Hayes Fund, Hynnek Fund, Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund, Pugsley Fund, and the Mary H. Rice Foundation; Russell Cowles; Josine Peters; Molly Davies; Michael J. Peterman and David A. Wilson; Noa and Ted Staryk; Penny Rand Winton; and the Sewell Family Foundation. Media partner Charter Communications. Special thanks to Martin Marietta Materials and the city of Waite Park.
This revival of Ocean is a co-commission of the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, MN and Dance Umbrella. Major support is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and members of the Board of Directors of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. The filming of Ocean is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support provided by The Ford Foundation and Save America’s Treasures, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
Coproduced by the Walker Art Center and the Cunningham Dance Foundation, with the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict and Northrop Dance at the University of Minnesota. Major support is generously provided by Sage and John Cowles and the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Presenting program. Additional support provided by The Minneapolis Foundation: Goodale Arts Fund, Leni D. & David Moore, Jr. / The Moore Family Fund for the Arts, and the Dale Schatzlein and Emily Maltz Fund; HRK Foundation: Hayes Fund, Hynnek Fund, Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund, Pugsley Fund, and the Mary H. Rice Foundation; Russell Cowles; Josine Peters; Molly Davies; Michael J. Peterman and David A. Wilson; Noa and Ted Staryk; Penny Rand Winton; and the Sewell Family Foundation. Media partner Charter Communications. Special thanks to Martin Marietta Materials and the city of Waite Park.
This revival of Ocean is a co-commission of the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, MN and Dance Umbrella. Major support is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and members of the Board of Directors of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. The filming of Ocean is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support provided by The Ford Foundation and Save America’s Treasures, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.