Stomachs on legs are proud to present

We've showcased potato-inspired modern dance on this blog before. Today I got to wondering: why didn't Merce Cunningham ever choreograph a dance about food?
(I'm not convinced his deli comedia piece is really about a deli).

The seminal avant-garde dance choreographer, who passed away on July 26, 2009, was the life partner of experimental music figurehead John Cage.

Cage may have had a very pleasing minimalist hot dog created in his honour, but he and Merce Cunningham were more into steamed fish and strange breads made from vegetable gruel than street meat.

Still, it seems they weren't mercenary about their macrobiotic diet. They carried peanut butter sandwiches in paper bags, stole mint-yoghurt dips when they weren't supposed to, and occasionally crash-dieted or binged on creme fraiche. According to this society article in the New York Times in '81, Cage would serve his favorite Scottish single malt whisky at dinner parties, in Japanese tea cups.

The two gents, known for their somewhat cerebral artistic creations, enjoyed baking cookies (see Cage's own recipes recipes here), eating surreptitious slices of chicken carried in Merce's briefcase, and doing modern dancing to handbag house at the age of 85.

One of Merce's dancers, who has a food blog, commemorated him with musings on grief-stricken quinoa salad and Top Chef Masters escapism and a recipe for ancho & guajillo enchiladas.