Merce Cunningham: The Modernizing of Modern Dance

Rating:
Summary: Engaging but repetitive
Review: As a highly unschooled Cunningham fan -- this is the first dance book I've ever read -- I found Copeland's book engaging in its scope, contextualizing Cunningham's choreography in relation to the leading cultural and aesthetic movements of the last half century. Copeland has essentially one thesis, stated fairly cleanly in the introduction. I would highly recommend the introduction. Unfortunately the rest of the book can be tedious and dogmatic as Copeland attempts to bolster his arguments through a strategy of repetition and exhaustion. Every movement and idea of the late 20th century seems to be a nail for Copeland's rhetorical hammer, and while I found the tie-ins and tidbits of history interesting enough to finish the book, I found the tone and structure of the book to be artificially argumentative and quite lacking in the openness and nuance that Copland praises Cunningham for.

Rating:
Summary: Superb tour through the 20th century -- and beyond
Review: What an extraordinary book! Copeland does not just tell the story of one figure, even though Cunningham is a great figure central to just about every artistic movement of the last 70 years. Copeland also relates in lucid prose how each of those movements arose, what made it tick, and how its legacy affects us today. After the "culture wars" of the 1990s, there were very few individuals left standing who could both appreciate and criticize the twists and turns of modernism and post-modernism. Copeland is among this saving remnant. If you are looking for a strong-minded, witty, engaging, eloquent Virgil to guide you through the Inferno and Purgatory of art since the 1930s, look no further. Copeland's your man.