Fifty years on and still going crazy ... that's quite some feet

For a man who has spent most of his life using elements of surprise to move and shock his audiences, Merce Cunningham seems to be a master of self-control. The 85-year-old is up every day at 7.30am and in bed by 11pm, with teaching, rehearsals, drawing and yoga filling his day - even though arthritis and old age have taken their toll, and he's barely able to dance any more.

'Yoga and drawing are other ways to stay away from yourself,' he says. 'You need to get rid of yourself as much as possible, otherwise you'll become all ego.' Described as 'the world's greatest living choreographer' by the Wall Street Journal, Cunningham is up there with Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan as among the most influential shapers of western contemporary dance.

Cunningham, whose dance company will perform in Hong Kong this week - the first time in more than two decades - has a style that's at odds with his strict personal regime. He's always allowed for freedom and improvisation in the 200 works he's produced. Although his pieces have an intellectual edge, they're known for their spontaneity. He has used everything from computer-generated images to silent dance rehearsals and last-minute changes to keep his dancers - and his audiences - on their toes.

Such spontaneity has not always gone down well. When Cunningham, then 20, joined the Martha Graham Company in 1939, he was often thought more than a little 'crazy' by critics. When his own company toured Europe in the 1960s, his abstraction triggered tomato throwing from the audience in Paris.

'In the 50 years of the company, there were bad times and there were good times,' he says. 'Life is full of these things. You've got to accept them. But at the same time, walk along your own way.'

In the 1950s, Cunningham began rehearsing his dancers without telling them what the music or set design would be. He introduced his signature 'chance operation'. For example, in his 1958 work Summerspace, he worked on the choreography in London, while Morton Feldman wrote the music in New York and Robert Rauschenberg worked on the decor in South Carolina. The three elements weren't brought together until the premiere. Cunningham says such a 'silent rehearsal' stretches the dancers.