NYC’s esteemed Merce Cunningham Dance Company will be getting some musical assistance from none other than Radiohead and Sigur Ros for their forthcoming dance piece entitled Split Sides. The performance will take place on October 14 at New York’s Brooklyn Academy Of Music and will feature 20 minuets of live music from each band. An array of dancers will perform in conjunction with Radiohead and Sigur Ros, but the artsy twist is this – the dancers will not have heard the music until the concert begins. Split Sides will also be performed October 16-18 at BAM, but these shows will pair the dancers with a combination of pre-recorded music and live musicians trying to recreate the Radiohead and Sigur Ros compositions.
Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood told Billboard, “It is raising lots of interesting problems about what dance music is. We’re talking about the bands crossing from one to the other or sorting out a structure. It could be interesting. Maybe we’ll all kind of surprise each other and do the opposite kind of music that we’re known for.” Regarding the later performances and the musical “copycats,” Greenwood commented, “Musicians copying what we’re doing sounds bizarre to me. I feel for them! We only just know what we’re doing. I’m sure it will be easy for them, but it just might be a bit weird.”
