Merce Cunningham, 1919-2009

Dancing to the Dance Itself
From the beginning, Cage and Cunningham's collaborations involved tenuous relations between music and dance, with the two coming together moments before departing on their own paths. In later works, the choreography and music were independent of each other. Cunningham's dancers were said to rehearse in silence, only hearing the music shortly before the performance itself. The dance was all-consuming. Cunningham (second from right, above) said, "When I dance, it means: This is what I am doing."

• TIME's 1960 story on Cunningham