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Cunningham was studying acting at Cornish School in Seattle. He found acting to be limiting. During this time Graham saw him dance and invited him to join her company.
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Cunningham moved to New York and danced as a soloist for Graham's company for 6 years. John Cage composed his first solo work in 1944.
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After 6 years of solo work with Graham's company, Cunningham decided to take off on his own track. He began teaching at Black Mountain College and collaborating with composer John Cage.
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While teaching at Black Mountain College, Cunningham established his own copany.
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Rainer begins studying with Graham and later moved on to join the Cunningham company.
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With an early background in gymnastics, Paxton joins the Cunningham company for 3 years performing works by Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer, and trains with Jose Limon for 1 year.
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After being urged by fellow dancers, Yvonne Rainer and Simone Forti, Brown moves to New York and takes classes taught by Robert Dunn who taught a class at the Cunnngham Co. based on John Cage's ideas.
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Rainer and fellow dancers approached reverend Al Carmines to ask if they could begin performing at the Judson Memorial Church. From 1962-1964 a collective group of dancers, composers, and vsual artists, performed experimentalist works that rejected the confines of traditional Modern dance.
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Brown cofounds the group Grand Union with Paxton and forms the Trisha Brown Dance Company.
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Paxton founds the experimental group Grand Union and begins to develop contact improvisation as a new dance form.
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Rainer begins focusing on medium and full length dance films with themes such as feminism, terrorism, social exclusion. and illness.
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From natural causes Cunningham passes away.
