July 28, 2009

Scripta manent

The thick of summer permits an off-track musing. The New York Times obituary for Merce Cunningham has a beautiful quote by the choreographer on the impermanence of dance:

"[Dancing] gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive."

Illustration: Illuminated initial, Responsoriale, Crosiers, Pays de Liège, 1504. Collection Cultura Fonds.