Giant of choreography rose above early derision

Merce Cunningham, choreographer. Died aged 90.

Merce Cunningham was a giant of 20th-century choreography. His career in dance, which lasted more than 60 years, began when, as a Seattle-based dance student in 1939, he was invited by Martha Graham to join her company in New York.

Although he was himself a great dancer, he would become better known as one of modern dance's leading innovators.

He brought about its transformation when he left Graham's troupe to form his own company in collaboration with his partner and lover, the avant-garde composer John Cage.

With Cage, Cunningham arrived at a philosophy that informed his work for the rest of his life. He decided dance need not be tied to music or story: pure movement was enough.

Working with many composers (most notably Cage) and designers such as the artists Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol, the only constraint he tended to offer was a piece's length.

His dancers would learn the intricate series of steps in silence, and only at the first performance would dance, music and set meet for the first time. Asked what one dance was about, he answered: "It's about 40 minutes."

For many years Cunningham's work was derided. Fairly early on in the life of his company, a New York reviewer wrote: "Last night Merce Cunningham presented a programme of his choreography, and if someone doesn't stop him, he's going to do it again tonight."

In Paris in 1964, when the company was beginning to tour Europe, audiences threw tomatoes and eggs, and Cunningham later recalled that people would leave in the middle of the performance to go out to buy more. But in London the Merce Cunningham Company was hailed as a sensation.

The initial run at Sadler's Wells was attended by Frederick Ashton, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, and it was followed by three equally successful weeks at the Phoenix.

Cunningham was astounded: the longest run he had ever had in New York was two nights. The delight of reviewers in London was reported in the American press, and his reputation was being made. He consolidated it with such highlights as Rainforest (1968), with a set designed by Andy Warhol that consisted of giant helium-filled silver pillows.

Crippled by arthritis for the last 25 years of his life, he found a new way of working out movements and of demonstrating to his dancers what he wanted them to do with their bodies by a computerised choreography program.

Cunningham continued to dance with the company into the early 1990s until crippled by arthritis.

He remained close to John Cage until the composer's death in 1992.