ABSTRACT
Merce Cunningham has been using the computer choreographic software, LifeForms, to make new dances since December 1989. Over twenty years before LifeForms was installed in his Westbeth studio in New York City, Merce Cunningham wrote about the possibility of a computer technology that would enable three-dimensional figures to be displayed on a computer screen. His projects very closely describe features of the LifeForms computer choreographic system as it was designed and implemented twenty-one years later. Envisioned and developed as a creative tool for choreographers at the Computer Graphics and Multi-Media Research Lab at Simon Fraser University, LifeForms provides an interactive, graphical interface that enables a choreographer to sketch out movement ideas in space and time. While Cunningham's method of creating movement for dance has evolved and expanded as a result of working with LifeForms, the LifeForms system has also evolved in response to Cunningham's interaction and feedback. This paper describes Merce Cunningham's use of the computer choreographic software and development in dance, and from the point of view of Cunningham's own choreographic process. The author, Thecla Schiphorst is a member of the design team that created LifeForms, and has been working with Merce Cunningham in New York City since December 1989, supporting his creation of new dance with the computer.
