"Merce Month" in Kansas City.

Johnson County Community College and Kansas City Ballet marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company with events held in February. JCCC's Carlsen Center hosted Cunningham and his company February 10-15 in a residency that included workshops about Cunningham's collaborations with visual artists, his work with composers, and the Life Forms choreography software he helped popularize, as well as two nights of performances. The following week, dancers of Kansas City Ballet performed Cunningham's Duets (1980) as staged by Catherine Kerr, Cunningham's partner in the original production. Kerr taught the choreography using the same method Cunningham had used to create it: first timing the dancers with a stopwatch as they rehearsed in silence, then switching to John Cage's musical score only after they could perform each segment exactly to the second. William Whitener, artistic director of Kansas City Ballet, said his Duets dancers (pictured in rehearsal are Holly Zimmerman and Christopher Barksdale) had worked hard to break away from balletic habits in details such as hand positions, adjust to working in parallel, and develop increased mobility in the back and the more weighted plie needed for Cunningham's work. Whitener said he hoped the production, and the Carlsen Center events, would provide a learning experience for audiences as well--encouraging ballet-goers to see a wider range of dance.