Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Experience Merce Cunningham and John Cage's monumental Ocean like never before--on the floor of Rainbow granite quarry 100 feet below the earth's surface. This once-in-a-lifetime production of Cunningham's most ambitious work, produced in such an audacious and breathtaking manner, involves not just the full 14-member Cunningham company, but an electronic score by David Tudor, and Andrew Culver's orchestral score inspired by John Cage, performed by 150 classical instrumentalists from the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, along with other guest players from across the state of Minnesota who will encircle the audience at the bottom of the quarry.

Acclaimed filmmaker and longtime Cunningham collaborator Charles Atlas will stage a five-camera shoot of the entire production which will become a living record of this stunning work.

Recognized as among the most artful and physically fluent dancers in the world, Cunningham's dancers embody his exquisite abstractions and choreographic inventions with a virtuosic elasticity, fluidity and precision. Marsha Skinner took her inspiration for the lighting from Moby Dick and for the costumes from Homer's "wine-dark sea."

People who don't drive on their own can take chartered busses from the Walker Art Center to Rainbow Quarry. The performance begins before people step off the busses that descend the winding roads leading from the surface to the bottom of the quarry bowl. There, they will emerge not into a theater but an environment. A stage, circular seating, and scenic design above the stage are being built for this production, along with lighting trusses, concessions, and bathrooms. More information on bussing and dining options will be available soon.

Critic's Comments

“Inspired by the writings of James Joyce, ‘Ocean’ is a work of spiritual elation and refined eroticism, incipient narratives, historical echoes, and glowing classical beauty.”-Lynn Garafola, Dance Magazine.

“Ocean is a work dance lovers might long to see often, for this piece for 14 dancers is a gorgeous spectacle, conceptually complex yet sensuously gratifying . . . . Like the sea itself, Ocean teems with life. It is a vision of creation constantly reshaping itself into ever more wondrous forms.” -The New York Times

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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; Penny Rand Winton; the Sewell Family Foundation; and Mavis and Robert Voigt.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.The Walker Art Center’s Dance Season is sponsored by Gray Plant Mooty.