Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years
Worth buying if: You study or love modern and postmodern dance history.
Skip it if: You want a short, narrative biography without images.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780893818630. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
David Vaughan’s richly illustrated retrospective traces Cunningham’s experiments with chance, collaboration, and movement across fifty years, pairing scholarly context with photographs, scores, and ephemera to map a radical modernist practice.
Why this book now
This comprehensive Aperture volume remains a key resource for anyone studying contemporary choreography, multimedia collaboration, and the history of postwar dance innovation.
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You study or love modern and postmodern dance history.
- You enjoy visually driven art books with archival material.
- You want a short, narrative biography without images.
- You seek step-by-step technique or practical dance instruction.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780893818630
Worth buying if: You study or love modern and postmodern dance history.
Skip it if: You want a short, narrative biography without images.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Balanced Moderate time
About a focused weekend or several evenings to read essays and browse the abundant photographic plates and reproductions across 320 pages.
What stands out here
This Aperture edition emphasizes high-quality reproductions and curated archival documents alongside Vaughan’s authoritative commentary on Cunningham’s methods and collaborations.
Best way to approach it
Dip between essays, photo spreads, and score reproductions—alternate close reading of essays with visual browsing to absorb both analysis and choreography imagery.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780893818630
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.