MerceDay: 1, the young boy in Centralia, Washington

MerceDay 1. Choreographer Merce Cunningham was born a hundred and two years ago today: April 16, 1919. This is not the earliest photo we have of him; it probably shows him around age four, do you agree? He is already utterly Merce: the shape of the face, the physical and spiritual isolation, the direct, thoughtful, intense (and here puzzled) gaze.

I once asked him from what age he wanted to leave his home town, Centralia, Washington State. He replied softly, “Oh, from about age two.” You might think that it was the small-town dullness that he wanted to escape. Only in part: there were other elements of his Centralia life he was keen to escape (to be disclosed in my Cunningham book in due course).

When he was fifteen, his dance teacher, Mrs Maude Barrett, took him, her daughter Marjorie, her young son Leon, and a pianist on a three-week tour of the West Coast, performing tap, ballroom, and other dance genres in clubs and theatres. Once they found themselves in a place with wholly inadequate dressing-took space. Mrs Barrett said “Oh well, pinch your cheeks, bite your lips, and you’re on!” That became one of Merce Cunningham’s favourite expressions: an exhortation to dancers to transcend any inconveniences and to go out onstage to deliver full value to the audience.

Friday April 16.