Merce Cunningham’s “Summerspace” as a Departure Point for Contemporary Reflection

How did the Summer Faculty Fellowship support your work?

Dance professor Paige Cunningham Caldarella, a 2026 HRI Summer Faculty Fellow, is conducting practice-based choreographic research using Merce Cunningham’s 1958 piece “Summerspace” as both a historical touchstone and a springboard for contemporary reflection. Drawing on her own experience performing the work with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and coaching from founding company member Carolyn Brown, Caldarella examines how the piece’s blend of ballet and modern dance vocabularies can offer insight into the evolution of contemporary ballet. Rather than treating Cunningham’s legacy as fixed, her research asks how historical dance forms can be revisited and reactivated to speak to present-day artistic and social concerns. The fellowship supported early studio investigations, including compensating artists for their participation, and will help fund an upcoming presentation of her work at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. Read the full interview to learn more about her research and its next steps.

Read Cunningham Caldarella’s full interview at the HRI Inquiry blog.