American choreographer Merce Cunningham died Sunday night of natural causes at his Manhattan home, reports CBC. He was 90 and was considered one of the most influential figures in modern dance.

Cunningham was considered a pioneer for his early use of video and computers in combination with dance. He experimented with technology by equipping audiences with iPods so they could choose the music to accompany the visual impact of the dance.

“You have to love dancing to stick to it,” he said. “It 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. It is not for unsteady souls.”

He formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953. The company, currently based in New York, will tour the world for two years, per instructions left by Cunningham in the legacy plan he announced six weeks ago. Following the tour, the company will wind down, leaving its assets to the non-profit Merce Cunningham Trust with the aim of preserving his choreography.






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