<P> John Cage and I became interested in the use of chance in the 50's . I think one of the very primary things that happened then was the publication of the "I Ching," the Chinese book of changes, from which you can cast your fortune: the hexagrams . Cage took it to work in his way of making compositions then; and he used the idea of 64--the number of the hexagrams--to say that you had 64, for example, sounds; then you could cast, by chance, to find which sound first appeared, cast again, to say which sound came second, cast again, so that it's done by, in that sense, chance operations . Instead of finding out what you think should follow--say a particular sound--what did the I Ching suggest? Well, I took this also for dance . I was working on a title called, "Untitled Solo," and I had made--using the chance operations--a series of movements written on scraps of paper for the legs and the arms, the head, all different . And it was done not to the music but with the music of Christian Wolff . </P> <P> Cunningham valued the process of a work over the product . Because of his strong interest in the creation of the choreography he used chance procedures in his work . A chance procedure means that the order of the steps or sequence is unknown until the actual performance and is decided by chance . For instance in his work Suite by Chance he used the toss of a coin to determine how to put the choreographed sequences together . Indeterminacy was another part of Cunningham's work . Many of his pieces had sections or sequences that were rehearsed so that they could be put in any order and done at any time . Although the use of chance operations was considered an abrogation of artistic responsibility, Cunningham was thrilled by a process that arrives at works that could never have been created through traditional collaboration . This does not mean, however, that Cunningham considered every piece created in this fashion a masterpiece . Those dances that did not "work" were quickly dropped from repertory, while those that do were celebrated as serendipitous discoveries . </P> <P> Cunningham used "non-representational" choreography which simply emphasizes movement, and does not necessarily represent any historical narrative, emotional situation, or idea . Such non-representational dance appears in many styles throughout history, but was not commonly used by ballet or Martha Graham, Cunningham's primary influences . In the use of chance procedures Cunningham abandoned the more traditional structured form of dance, he did not believe that a dance needs a beginning, middle or end . </P> <P> In Sixteen Dances for Soloist and Company of Three (1951) Cunningham used Indeterminacy for the first time in this piece and the changing element for each show was the sequence of the sections . </P>

One method of choreography that merce cunningham is known for is