Douglas Dunn draws from his past experiences, such as dancing with Merce Cunningham, but also infuses his own ideas into his works as well. His performances often incorporate radical costumes. He has also been said to have equal bouts of humor and form in his pieces. This quote by him sums up what he strives to do with his work...
"My goal in making dances is not to define an arena of taste, a style. Rather, it is to go from one constellation of intuitively understood embodiment to another; to step from one cluster, one unification of moves circumscribed by time and extent of consciousness, to another, under another sun. This progression is not a matter of progress; craft accrued from the experience of setting steps guarantees nothing, not even an easier start the next time. But the process of organizing it, deciding it's finished, performing it, then letting the dance recede into the past, my past, stimulates psychic turnover, the way close attention to the familiar alters perceptual habit, the way travelling to the relative exoticism of another culture refreshes and reformulates vision. Vision is what I'm after."
Dunn's work seems to bring a unique element to concert dance of quirkiness. His pieces usually seem to have that element of quirkiness, humor, and eccentricity. One can never be exactly sure what to expect when his crew hits the stage.
Link to quote:
http://douglasdunndance.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=40
NY Times dance review on his work:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/arts/dance/10dunn.html
Another dance review on his work:
http://ballet-dance.com/200905/articles/dunn_pulcinella_20090228_neidish.html
