Merce Cunningham is 90 years old this year and wheel-chair bound, but still choreographing for his dance company with the help of the special "Life-Forms" computer software he helped create! Endlessly inventive he seems determined to stay, right up until the end, at which time current plans call for his company to take off across the USA to show off his choreography. (Finally)! Then the dancers will all be paid for another year, but disbanded. It will seem to me to be the end of several dance eras-his career has lasted so long!

So sad to think, that proposed tour may be my one and only chance to see the company perform that first sparked my own 30 year dance vocation-but that's the way it is. Although Merce and his company are revered artists in Europe, and he has won the highest artistic awards and honors for his work, both here and abroad, he's largely unknown by the majority of Americans; limited funding for his company here in the US has often meant they've had to perform abroad far more often than here-and outside of NYC, they're barely seen except at the occasional college or university.

This book is a collection of writings by Merce and others who have worked with him, and critics who have reviewed his work over the years between 1944 and 1992, and should be read by anyone interested in Dance History-I hope NOW, before he passes on! So maybe a few more people will show up to see his choreography and his dancers-and understand what they are seeing-even if it is the "Farewell Tour". ( )