In Pursuit of Non-Knowledge: Perspectives on Performing with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company

This thesis documents an experience that took place over ten years performing as a guest musician with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. I am a professional musician, a cellist. Through this practice-based research project, I set out to understand the influence of an experience that changed and liberated me as a musician. In this autoethnographic and reflective study which investigates performance, the musician’s knowledge and experience are central in arriving at a synthesis of perceptions and methods. The output of the project is creative. Through exploratory performances undertaken over five years, specific questions regarding the unique practice of Merce Cunningham Dance Company musicians have been examined. By mounting another experience – the research project itself – I sought to establish, in particular, an understanding of a perception of a state of grace in performance, and to examine the concept of ‘Non-Knowledge’ as fundamental to that experience.