In 1973 the Paris Festival d’Automne and the Paris International Dance Festival commissioned a new work from Merce Cunningham, to be performed by 26 dancers of the Ballet of the Paris Opera, including three etoiles, Wilfride Piollet, Michael Denard, and Jean Guizerix. One of his epic works, the dance consisted, Cunningham wrote, “of a number of separate dance events—solos, duets, trios, quintets, and larger groups.” As in works for his own company, the dance and the music (“Etcetera”, an orchestral work by John Cage) were independent of each other. Johns’s décor opened up the stage all the way to the back wall, seen dimly through two scrims, one behind the other. Both the scrims and the costumes shaded from dark to light gray. John’s designs were realized under the supervision of Mark Lancaster, who subsequently was named Artistic Advisor to MCDC. “Un jour ou deux” was first performed in November 1973 in the Paris Opera/Palais Garnier.
