Cunningham, Merce (1919- )

US choreographer and modern dancer. He is recognized as the father of postmodernist, or experimental, dance. Along with his friend and collaborator, composer John Cage, he introduced chance into the creative process, such as tossing coins to determine options. Influenced by Martha Graham, with whose company he was soloist 1939-45, he formed his own avant-garde dance company and school in New York in 1953. His works include The Seasons (1947), Antic Meet (1958), Squaregame (1976), and Arcade (1985).

Cunningham worked closely with composers such as Cage and artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, when staging his works; among them Septet (1953), Suite for Five (1956), Crises (1960), Winterbranch (1964), Scramble (1967), Signals (1970), and Sounddance (1974).