Mondays with Merce: A Mercist Project of Space, Time, and Screen

Abstract

In the Mondays with Merce video series, Nancy Dalva curates interviews with Merce Cunningham and his community filmed in the two years before his death. In editing the interviews for presentation, Dalva creates a “Mercist” archive—a collection of materials that mirrors Cunningham’s own artistic priorities of process, multi-vocality, and audience agency. Exploring how the series creates this Mercist perspective, I show that Dalva’s choices, and Cunningham’s, create a legacy that remains radically human, even as it draws new audiences to Cunningham’s life and work.