Ballettabend. Music Walk with Dancers (5 October 1960). [Photographs by Peter Fischer]. - 1960

(Cologne)., 1960. The Ballettabend or “Ballet Evening” took place in the auditorium of the Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium in Cologne on the 5th of October 1960. The participants were none other than the great dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham and his dance partner Carolyn Brown, together with the composer John Cage and pianist David Tudor. The evening’s production concluded with “Music Walk with Dancers” pairing a new duet for Cunningham and Carolyn Brown with John Cage’s indeterminate work “Music Walk”. Cunningham and Brown performed a series of movement tasks such as waltzing, skipping, running, dancing a softshoe, doing warm-up exercises, balancing on a dolly, and sitting in chairs. Cage and David Tudor walked about the space playing piano. This set of six seemingly unpublished photographs (each with a printing date stamp of 08.11.61 on verso) show the major protagonists: a relaxed portrait of Merce Cunningham and Carolyn Brown during rehearsals (17.8 x 18.5 cm); two photographs of Merce Cunningham and Carolyn Brown performing “Music Walk with Dancers” - in one of the photographs John Cage is also seen on stage (17.5 x 23.9 cm; 16.6 x 23.5 cm); two photographs showing all four participants taking a bow at the culmination of the performance - John Cage, Carolyn Brown, Merce Cunningham & David Tudor (17.3 x 24 cm; 16.7 x 24 cm); photograph of David Tudor and John Cage emerging on stage at the evening’s conclusion (17 x 24 cm).