Man of Many Inventions

Leave it to Merce Cunningham—always alert to the latest technological advancements and their potential applications—to create a new work for dance that incorporates iPods. For the world premiere of the master choreographer’s new eyeSpace, Mikel Rouse’s score can be downloaded and listened to in random order by audience members. It adds an element of chance to their experience, much as Cunningham himself has famously experimented with chance procedures in his choreography. Rouse, whose latest opera, The End of Cinematics, was just seen at BAM last week, has incorporated digitally sampled sounds of John Cage’s prepared piano into the score, titled International Cloud Atlas, which also includes an environmental soundscape that will be projected throughout the theater.

The days when Cunningham’s company had an annual New York City season are gone, and these days any local sighting of this exceptional troupe is a rare and significant event. After recent seasons at BAM and Lincoln Center, the Joyce offers a more intimate setting to observe these dancers’ preternaturally intelligent and spontaneous performances. A revival of Crises, a 1960 dance that has not been performed in New York for over four decades, shares the program with Cunningham’s newest work. Cunningham himself was the lone male component of an original cast that included such legendary dancers as Carolyn Brown and Viola Farber. Set to several of Conlon Nancarrow’s eccentric Rhythm Studies for player piano, the work was described by Cunningham as “an adventure in togetherness.” The connection among the dancers was left to random selection due to the elastic bands incorporated around the dancers’ waists, arms, wrists and legs—all of which allowed for additional ways for bodies to link and hold on to one another. Who said you needed the latest techno gadget to be on the cutting edge?

Oct. 11-15. Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave. (at 19th St.), 212-242-0800; Wed. 7:30, Thurs.-Sat. 8, Sun. 2 & 7:30, $44.