Craneway Event: Day One, 2011

Dean’s Craneway Event (and consequently Craneway Eevent: Day One) captures moments and auras from a rehearsal for one of the last events the choreographer Merce Cunningham would create for his dance company. Each print, based on a still from the film Dean made over the course of three days with the company in Albert Kahn’s 1930s Ford assembly plant in Richmond, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay, expresses movement. The series forms a moving portrait of one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century. But it also reflects the special perspective which the artist brings to all her subjects. Dean’s extraordinary unique treatment of the prints create a dialogue among dancers, architecture, sunlight, and passing ships, delicately moderated by the tranquil, forceful presence of Merce Cunningham, just months before his death.