‘Cunningham' captures dimensions of dance

Exceptional dance, of all things, has turned out to be a splendid subject for 3-D filmmaking. In 2011, Wim Wenders took on the work of dancer-choreographer Pina Bausch in the memorable “Pina” and now, from a very different filmmaker, comes “Cunningham,” a visual wonder that involves from start to finish.

The subject, as the title points out, is Merce Cunningham, the revolutionary American choreographer whose decades of work changed the very nature of dance before he died a decade ago at age 90.

Though two-thirds of the film is made up of 3-D excerpts from 14 of the 180 dances he created, “Cunningham” aims to be not only stunning, which it is, but also to serve as a kind of crash course in the man and his work.

More than that, by using all manner of visual pizzazz to creatively include archival material, including photographs, home movies and excerpts from letters and books, “Cunningham” makes good on its stated goal of doing justice to the man's spirit of inventiveness.

Written, directed and edited by Russian-born Alla Kovgan, experienced in working with dance and cinema, this film was made with the collaboration of two long-time Cunningham associates - Robert Swinston and Jennifer Goggans - in choreography roles and was able to feature the last generation of dancers that Cunningham personally trained.

Kovgan understood that the 3-D medium, with its reliance on “multiple layers of action in relation to the setting,” would be especially good at capturing the choreographer's work.

“Cunningham's” range of settings, including an urban rooftop, a wooded area, an empty auditorium and a glistening subway station, so suit the works featured in Mko Malkhasyan's cinematography that you feel immersed not distanced, totally inside what you're watching.

The film's best weapon, however, is Cunningham himself. Intense, committed, formidably intelligent and persuasively articulate, saying things like “dance does not refer, it is what it is” and “I don't describe it, I do it,” Cunningham commands the film whenever he speaks.

One of the most striking works Kovgan has chosen to film is 1958's “Summerspace,” performed against a Robert Rauschenberg-designed pointillist backdrop that effective green-screen technology makes especially immersive.