Highest rank

Cunningham is nothing if not steady. Considered one of the world's greatest, most influential choreographers, Cunningham has been on the forefront of modern dance for more than half a century. This summer in the town of Becket in the Berkshires, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival celebrates the choreographer's 90th birthday with a weeklong engagement encompassing performances by his renowned company (July 22-26), two PillowTalks and an exhibition focusing on Cunningham's groundbreaking collaborations with visual artists. In addition, an interview with Cunningham, who first performed at Jacob's Pillow in 1955, is included in a documentary that the festival is producing.

"He is in the highest ranks of dance gods," says Jacob's Pillow director Ella Baff. "He has influenced so many people that they don't even know he's influenced them. It's been said so many times, he has influenced the way people see dance."

And hear dance.

Cunningham's decision to let choreography and music exist independent of one another means even the dancers often don't hear the music they'll be moving to until the performance. In fact, for one of the works on the Jacob's Pillow program, the 2006 "eyeSpace," the audience will decide what music will be featured. The piece invites viewers to listen to individualized scores using provided iPod Shuffles. "I hope the audience has fun with it," Baff says. "How can they not?"

The engagement also includes two other works from different periods of Cunningham's career. The choreographer described his 1975 "Sounddance" as "space observed under a microscope." "CRWDSPCR," choreographed in 1993, is a fast-paced, nearly nonstop blur of activity created with the use of a computer program Cunningham helped develop called DanceForms. All three works showcase the choreographer's revolutionary approach to time, space, and movement.

From the beginning, Cunningham's aesthetic has always revolved around his fascination with movement. Following his tenure as a soloist in the company of Martha Graham, he started his own company in 1953. Unlike Graham's choreography, with its psychological complexities and dramatic narratives, Cunningham's focused on drama inherent in the body, and he abandoned conventional structures. He began collaborating with artists, from Robert Rauschenberg to Jasper Johns to Andy Warhol.

But it was disconnecting dance from music that remains Cunningham's most radical innovation. With legendary composer John Cage, his life partner from the 1940s until Cage's death in 1992, he explored combining dance and music independently, both occurring in the same time and space, but without the usual interplay and support. The entire notion of dancing to the beat disappeared.

"A lot of people have trouble with Merce's independence of dance and music," says David Vaughan, author of "Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years." "But that's what excited me about it. It's not narrative or music visualization, just dance for its own sake."

Even at 90, Cunningham is still creating, still innovating. Baff, who saw the April premiere of a work commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, says, "He's just as current and of the moment as ever."

Other Jacob's Pillow summer highlights include Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (July 8-12), which brings a world premiere by one of Europe's most sought-after choreographers, the intense, eclectic Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. His "Orbo Novo" features a live original score by the accomplished young composer Szymon Brzoska. Groupe Emile Dubois (July 15-19) brings the US premiere of "Des gens qui dansent" by choreographic storyteller Jean-Claude Gallotta. Baff calls it "poignant, funny, a little wild and crazy. . . a very beautiful, humanistic work about life and people and relationships."

Jacob's Pillow, 358 George Carter Rd., Becket. 413-243-0745. www.jacobspillow.org