Watching Merce Move (In Pre-Arthritis Days)

“Footage of Merce Cunningham’s choreography is everywhere on YouTube, but it’s much harder locating film of him dancing, and this 1964 snippet is a collector’s find. Capturing an extract from Septet (created in 1953), it counters all those memories of Merce’s late, Lear-like performances, when his 70-something body had become straitened and hobbled by arthritis.”