Merce Sequence Found!
On the third trip I made I finally came across a full length documentation of Walkaround Time (stage rehearsal) filmed by Charles Atlas. This was after requesting and viewing 3 other videos on file and requesting two of the company’s photo collection searching for any clues. I was questioning the text I read the description from and how simple the sequence really was and began scrutinising and watching the whole performance pausing sketching any moments I felt could be it. The vocabulary of a run could be many things, but the give away would be the interaction with the performance costume. The camera work of Atlas is great, using the stage as an environment to explore rather than the singular viewpoint of the audience like in the previous video link. The camera scans around sequences being ‘marked’ and dancers resting (I wonder if this came into Bels process of making Veronique Doisneau). The footage damaged means John Cages soundtrack drops in and out a chance effect that could seem on purpose but the total absence and abruptness tells me otherwise.
So the camera scans away from three dancers resting to the back left where Merce stands behind one of Jasper Johns plastic replicas of Duchamp sculpture. Dressed in a flesh pink two part leotard He has a second top half tied round his waist. He begins to run on the spot. Galloping/prancing, in the aesthetic he developed, the toes pointing down, knees raise to waist, economic yet still energetic. The excess flesh of his second top flaps as it is agitated through the movement (maybe the most unclean presentation of the body i’ve seen of Cunnninghams work, considering their use of leotards for most performances.) Merce continues to run on the spot, removing his top half and ties round waist. The spare top then replaces the original. This sequence is very interesting as it seems to be the closest form of found movement in his works. It is very interesting to see how this has come from A nude descends staircase No. 2 by Duchamp, the removal of tops seems to form a readymade quality akin to one of Duchamps sculptures. The upper and lower half of his body work together and continue moving but seem to have different aesthetics…
It seemed a small victory to find a piece of movement being close to an exact description in the essay but it has given me a fuller idea of how this sequence sat in relation to the full performance and the surrounding stage set. Whilst developing A nude descends into a lump 8.1-8.3 I began using a marked mirror as a way to study the walking. I plan to develop this into a sculpture, finding this footage will inform how I install the mirror sculpture, using panels of the clothing pattern used in Merces performance.
