runtime:topic id=”PEHST000502”>Merce Cunningham crouches as part of a dance in 1973. Beginning in the 1970s, Cunningham worked extensively on dance-for-camera projects, often in collaboration with Elliot Caplan and Charles Atlas. (Steven Mark Needham / Associated Press)
Merce Cunningham was creatively and personnally linked to composer John Cage, left, until Cage’s death in 1992. They amazed me by their air of living for art and freedom, wrote critic Alfred Kazin. (Steven Mark Needham / Associated Press)
Merce Cunningham performs with his dance company at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. “Cunningham is happiest when he can create a situation in which no one knows what to expect,” Times music critic Mark Swed wrote in 2003. (Los Angeles Times)
Front and center, Merce Cunningham performs in “Trackers” at the Variety Arts Theater in Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Merce Cunningham poses with the hands of dancers during a rehearsal. (Mitsu Yasukawa / For The Times)
Merce Cunningham at dance studio in New York’s West Village. “Dancing is a spiritual exercise in physical form,” Cunningham wrote in 1952. (Joe Tabacca / For The Times)
Merce Cunningham smiles after receiving the gold medal of the Praemium Imperiale, a global arts prize, in October 2005 at the award ceremony in Tokyo. (Yoshikazu Tsuno - AFP/Getty Images)
Merce Cunningham salutes the crowd on stage after the presentation o fa show at Paris’ Opera in January 2005. (Gabriel Bouys - AFP/Getty Images)
Merce Cunningham takes a bow with dancers after a performance. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
