Who

The eminence gris of the dance world, Cunningham is the most acclaimed choreographer living today.

Backstory

Cunningham has been dancing for nearly seven decades. He was 13 when he first took his first tap class, and joined the Martha Graham Dance Company (when Graham herself was still dancing with the company) in 1938 at the age of 19. Cunningham presented his first solo work in 1944 with John Cage, the avant-garde composer he'd met in college—and fallen in love with—and a year later, Cunningham left Graham to create works of his own. After founding his eponymous dance company in 1953 with a performance at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Cunningham continued to choreograph work throughout the 1950s and 60s, collaborating with Cage on the scores and a handful of emerging artists like Robert Rauschenberg (who served as the company's official artistic advisor from 1954 to '64), Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. In the early days, Cunningham didn't earn much praise from critics, who had difficulty understanding his work. That changed in 1966 with Variations V, which remains one of Cunningham's most famous works. Cunningham has since gone on to choreograph more than 170 works, earning just about every artistic achievement award imaginable in the process.

Of note

Over the past two decades, Cunningham has continued to experiment, incorporating an increasing amount of video and collaborating with young, cutting-edge artists. Now in his 80s, arthritis has made it impossible for him to dance, but he's remained a creative powerhouse. In recent years, he unveiled DanceForms, 3-D technology that tests the possibilities of the bodily movement (and which he's used to make his already intensely difficult dances even more so). He still runs the company that bears his name, and has kept it fresh and up-to-date with collaborations with the likes of Radiohead and Sigur Ros. At one recent performance, he gave each member of the audience an iPod and allowed them to create their own individual scores.

Trophy case

Cunningham's won every highbrow accolade in the book, including France's Legion d'Honneur, a slew of honorary doctorate degrees, the National Medal of Arts, and a MacArthur "genius" grant.

Personal

His partner John Cage passed away in 1992, ending a romantic and professional partnership that lasted nearly five decades. The two lived and worked in the West Village in an apartment filled with Cunningham's sketches (he likes to draw pictures of birds), plants and Cage's collection of homegrown mushrooms. Cunningham now lives in Chelsea.