To What Extent Can Merce Cunningham’s Dances Be Preserved?

John Cage once described his partner’s art as “less like an object and more like the weather” – which doesn’t stick around over time. Lizzie Feidelson, the granddaughter of Merce’s first student, writes about the “dance capsules” assembled by the Merce Cunningham Trust to preserve and license his works – and considers what such documentation can, and cannot, record.