Merle Marsicano
{{Short description|American dancer and choreographer}}
Merle Marsicano ({{Nee}} Petersen, 1903{{En dash}}1983){{Cite web|title=Merle Marsicano papers|url=http://archives.nypl.org/dan/18557|website=New York Public Library}} was an American dancer and choreographer who worked with a wide range of avant-garde composers and artists.
Life
Marsicano was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied ballet with Ethel Phillips and Michael Mordkin, tap dance with Edna Wroe, and modern dance with Martha Graham and Ruth St. Denis.{{cite book|last=Manchester|first=P. W.|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100136617|title=The International Encyclopedia of Dance|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press}} She was married to painter Nicholas Marsicano.{{Cite news|last=McLaughlin|first=Lillian|date=1963-06-14|title=VIsiting artist at center shows bold, vigorous style|pages=15|work=Des Moines Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60983960/visiting-artist-at-center-shows-bold/|access-date=2020-10-12}}
Career
In 1962, Marsicano formed the Merle Marsicano Dance Company{{cite book |last1=Pavlakis |first1=Christopher |title=The American Music Handbook |date=1974 |publisher=Free Press}} and was frequently associated with the Tenth Street group of abstract expressionists. Franz Kline painted a backdrop for her work Queen of Hearts (1960),{{cite news |last1=Raynor |first1=Vivien |title=ART; ART AND DANCE IN COLLABORATION |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/17/nyregion/art-art-and-dance-in-collaboration.html |access-date=12 October 2020 |work=New York Times |date=1983-07-17}} the largest painting in Kline's oeuvre .{{cite book |title=Franz Kline: The Color Abstractions | last1=Gaugh |first1=Harry F. |date=1979 |publisher=Phillips Collection}}
She collaborated with John Cage, Morton Feldman, Stefan Wolpe and many other composers. Feldman composed several pieces including Figure of Memory{{cite journal |last1=Dohoney |first1=Ryan |title=Élan vital … and how to fake it: Morton Feldman and Merle Marsicano's Vernacular Metaphysics. |journal=Contemporary Music Review |date=1029 |volume=38 |issue=3 |doi=10.17613/phv6-zw66 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/phv6-zw66}} and Dance Suite for Marsicano. Figure of Memory was first performed at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York on April 3,1954, by Marsicano.{{cite book |last1=McDonagh |first1=Don |title=The Complete Guide to Modern Dance |date=1976 |publisher=Doubleday}}
In 1970, New York Times critic Don McDonagh wrote that Marsicano's choreography had a "languorous sensuousness," with the "weight and feel of a satisfying stretch."{{Cite news|last=McDonagh|first=Don|date=1970-03-31|title=Merle Marsicano offers new dances|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/31/archives/merle-marsicano-offers-new-dances.html|access-date=2020-10-12|issn=0362-4331}} In a 1977 review, he wrote that, "Almost always, one has the impression that the works are somehow independent of the rhythmic and spatial laws that ordinarily govern dancing."{{cite news|last=McDonagh|first=Don|date=1977-06-14|title=Dance:Unhurried Sense of Time|work=The New York Times|location=New York, NY|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/14/archives/dance-unhurried-sense-of-time.html|access-date=2020-10-11}}
In The International Encyclopedia of Dance, P. W. Manchester described her dancing style:
Marsicano made no use of floor movements; she neither jumped nor turned. Instead, she made time stand still as she wove patterns with her feet, a subtly flexible torso, and eloquent arms. She seemed to will the air to become heavy or weightless as she passed through it.Richard Kostelanetz wrote, "Merle Marsicano has long had a reputation among the cognoscenti as one of the most imaginative choreographers."{{cite book|last1=Kostelanetz|first1=Richard|title=On Innovative Performance(s): Three Decades of Recollections on Alternative Theater|date=1994|publisher=McFarland & Company}}
Marsicano taught at Smith College {{cite book |last1=McDonagh |first1=Don |title=The Complete Guide to Modern Dance |date=1976 |publisher=Doubleday}} Dimension, College of Architecture and Design, University of Michigan, 1955. and Yale University, where she also presented a recital in collaboration with John Cage.{{cite news|author=|date=1953-09-11|title=Dancer Joins Art School|work=The New York Times|location=New York, NY}} Her papers are housed in the collection of the New York Public Library.
References
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