The influential American choreographer Merce Cunningham has died in New York. He was aged 90.
David Vaughan, archivist of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, said the choreographer died in his sleep overnight.
The New York Timessaid on its website the dancer and choreographer ranked with Isadora Duncan, Serge Diaghilev, Martha Graham and George Balanchine in "making people rethink the essence of dance and choreography, posing a series of "But" and "What if?" questions over a career of nearly seven decades".
Cunningham appeared in every single performance given by his company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, until 1989, when he reached the age of 70, the newspaper's website said.
In 1999, at 80, he danced a duet with Mikhail Baryshnikov at the New York State Theater.
"What interests me is movement," Cunningham said in a 2005 interview with Bloomberg News.
"Not movement that necessarily refers to something else, but is just what it is. Like when you see somebody or an animal move, you don't have to know what it's doing."
Additional reporting: Bloomberg