THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

RainForest had the helium-filled pillows of Andy Warhol as its set.  The number of pillows always depended on the size of the playing area.  Some of the pillows we suspended by fish line and weights, those filled with the most helium.  The others with less helium, were lying free on the floor and moved as they might – sometimes floating off stage and on several occasions into the audience.  To me, they were like animals or dancers; when it was cold they moved little, remaining inert; when it was warm either via the temperature or the lights, they enjoyed moving.  Never quite the same environment from one time to the next; little way to judge ahead how to act with them.

Merce Cunningham via mercecunningham.org, 1983

Our ecstasy in dance comes from the possible gift of freedom, the exhilarating moment that this exposing of the bare energy can give us.  What is meant is not license, but freedom, that is, a complete awareness of the world and at the same time a detachment from it.

Merce Cunningham via mercecunningham.org, 1955