Merce Cunningham
Sign in to saveAlso known as Mercier Cunningham, Mercier Philip Cunningham, Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham
American dancer and choreographer (1919–2009)
OverviewAI-generated
Merce Cunningham was a dancer and choreographer whose professional work began in 1938. He was born on April 16, 1919, and died on July 26, 2009.
His contributions to the arts have been recognized through several major honors. He is included in the American Academy Arts Sciences collection, the Macarthur Fellows collection, and the Kennedy Center Honors collection. These recognitions highlight his standing within the cultural institutions that preserve his legacy.
Synthesized by Vinony from 10 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Firecrawl, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Mercier Philip Cunningham , ( 1919-04-16 ) April 16, 1919, Centralia, Washington , U.S.
- Died
- July 26, 2009 (2009-07-26) (aged 90), New York City, U.S.
- Occupations
- Dancer choreographer
- Years active
- 1938–2009
- Partner
- John Cage
- Website
- mercecunningham.org
via Wikipedia infobox
Official website
Home - Merce Cunningham Trust
mercecunningham.org →Link to the official site · 9,766 chars · not written by Vinony
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Philip
- Family name
- Cunningham
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Centralia
- Place of death
- New York City
- Occupation
- dancer
- Employer
- Black Mountain College
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Official website
- www.mercecunningham.org
- Image
- Merce Cunningham April 16, 1919- July 26, 2009.png
Show 12 more facts
- name in native language
- Merce Cunningham
- date of birth
- 1919-04-16
- date of death
- 2009-07-26
- Commons category
- Merce Cunningham
- unmarried partner
- John Cage
- described by source
- UbuWeb
- student
- Viola Farber
- has works in the collection
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- start of work period
- 1938-00-00
- sexual orientation
- homosexuality
- birth name
- Mercier Philip Cunningham
- P12674
- Paul Uhlenhuth
Sources (10)
via Wikidata · CC0
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Merce Cunningham
Merce Philip Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other disciplines, including musicians John Cage, David Tudor, Brian Eno, and graphic artists Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and Jasper Johns; and fashion designer Rei Kawakubo. Works that he produced with these artists had a profound impact on avant-garde art beyond the world of dance.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Merce Cunningham” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.