The Meaning of It All

Some of my classmates have repeated what I believe to be simply not true. They have stated that the dancing style of Miguel Gutierrez is like that of Merce Cunningham. It is my opinion that saying so is equivalent to saying that a communist is a socialist. In other words, you can get away with saying it, but only up to a point. In my view the two have to be contrasted, especially in the area of meaning. Neither seems to be traditional; their dances do not have a narrative meaning, so in that way they are similar. But in the area of construction and meaning I believe them to be just about as opposite as opposites can get. Merce Cunningham, as already stated, wanted to break dance up into its simplest parts. Miguel Gutierrez, however, said that he was concerned with the overall theatrical experience. Those are two opposing concepts. He is also concerned with the role of the 3-D body in modern culture because we experience so much motion in 2-D movies. His work deals with large ideas such as pleasure, resistance, and different realities, which come from his personal experiences. Miguel Gutierrez wants to create some sort of energy between the performance and the people; I strongly doubt that Merce Cunningham aimed for anything of the kind, or even really cared, about his audience. So this is why in my view they are not at all similar. I welcome any contest of that.