fictive uncertainties

While teaching in Boulder, Colorado, Cunningham was inspired by children running and skipping on the street below his window. As he watched their playful games, Cunningham remembered, “They were having such a beautiful time. Field Dances came from that because I could see that they were running and skipping and to me it was dancing; but for them it wasn’t different.” Similar to the unstructured, carefree way the children played outside of Cunningham’s window, the dancers in Field Dances made their own choice of movements, leaving each performance different from the next. Each dancer was given a number of small events they could do together, and a few short dances to be done on their own. Robert Rauschenberg designed the colorful costumes, which were leotards with chiffon panels attached to the back for the women, and a sweatshirt for the men, over tights. Field Dances first premiered in 1963, with music by John Cage.

PREMIERE DATE - July 17, 1963 PREMIERE VENUE - University of California LOCATION - Los Angeles, CA MUSIC - John Cage Variations IV COSTUMES - Robert Rauschenberg DURATION - 12 minutes ORGINAL CAST - Shareen Blair, Carolyn Brown, Merce Cunningham, Viola Farber

It is only a dream of the grass blowing   east against the source of the sun in an hour before the sun’s going down whose secret we see in a children’s game   of ring a round of roses told.

"Ring a Ring o' Roses" or "Ring Around the Rosie" or "Ring a Ring o' Rosie" is a nursery rhyme or folksong and playground singing game. It first appeared in print in 1881, but it is reported that a version was already being sung to the current tune in the 1790s and similar rhymes are known from across Europe. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7925. Urban legend says the song originally described the plague, specifically the Great Plague of London, or the Black Death, but folklorists reject this idea. // Wiki

Common American version:

Ring-a-round the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down.

While teaching in Boulder, Colorado, Cunningham was inspired by children running and skipping on the street below his window. As he watched their playful games, Cunningham remembered, “They were having such a beautiful time. Field Dances came from that because I could see that they were running and skipping and to me it was dancing; but for them it wasn’t different.” Similar to the unstructured, carefree way the children played outside of Cunningham’s window, the dancers in Field Dances made their own choice of movements, leaving each performance different from the next. Each dancer was given a number of small events they could do together, and a few short dances to be done on their own. Robert Rauschenberg designed the colorful costumes, which were leotards with chiffon panels attached to the back for the women, and a sweatshirt for the men, over tights. Field Dances first premiered in 1963, with music by John Cage.

PREMIERE DATE - July 17, 1963 PREMIERE VENUE - University of California LOCATION - Los Angeles, CA MUSIC - John Cage Variations IV COSTUMES - Robert Rauschenberg DURATION - 12 minutes ORGINAL CAST - Shareen Blair, Carolyn Brown, Merce Cunningham, Viola Farber