Members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in "eyeSpace," the longer version, at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami in 2007. Ben Thacker

Merce Cunningham Event: Performers, including Andrea Weber, front, inhabiting the expanses of Dia:Beacon. Photograph: Stephanie Berger

Andrea Weber, center, and members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing next to a giant metal sculpture by Richard Serra, partly visible at left, in a gallery at Dia:Beacon. Photograph: Stephanie Berger

Members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Dia:Beacon.

Part of Robert Rauschenberg’s set for Merce Cunningham’s Minutiae.

John Cage at Britain’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1989. Photograph: James Fraser/ Rex Features.

Merce Cunningham’s eyeSpace.

Julie Cunningham (no relation) and Daniel Madoff in the world premiere of Merce Cunningham’s “XOVER”. Photograph: Matthew Lutch.

Rachelle Rafailedes and Anthony Bryant of L.A. Dance Project in "Murder Ballades." Photograph: Paula Lobo.

New York City Ballet in “Everywhere We Go” at the David H. Koch Theater. Photograph: Andrea Mohin

Merce Cunningham Dance Company: Rashaun Mitchell danced (with art by Imi Knoebel in the background) at Dia: Beacon, in the Cunningham company's final Beacon Events. Photograph: Andrea Mohin.

Brandon Collwes, left, of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, performed on one of five stages arranged around a large space at Dia: Beacon. (A second can be seen at right.) Stephanie Berger

Members of the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Taylor’s Arden Court. Photograph: Michelle V. Gains.

Merce Cunningham in his dance Signals. Photograph: James Klosty.

Merce Cunningham in his “Signals”. Photograph: James Klosty.

Maria Calegari in the original cast of Brahms/Handel, jointly choreographed for New York City Ballet by Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp