UC Davis is hosting a visit by dance legend Merce Cunningham and his company, with events scheduled through April 26. They include two shows at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, which announced a special discount for faculty and staff for the April 26 performance (details below).

Here is a rundown of all the Cunningham-related events:

• Beach Birds for Camera -- Elliot Caplan's 1992 film featuring Cunningham's choreography and John Cage's music, to be shown continuously from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 19 (Picnic Day) in the Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center. The film is 28 minutes long.
• Lecture -- Stephan Moore, Cunningham's sound editor, on Cunningham's commissioning of composers such as Cage and David Tudor, and today's sound production techniques. Sponsored by the Technocultural Studies Program. Free. 1 p.m. April 22, lobby, Technocultural Studies Building (Art Annex).
• How Human Creativity Happens in the Arts and the Sciences -- A discussion with Cunningham archivist David Vaughn, UC Davis faculty members Della Davidson, Laurie San Martin and Bob Ostertag, and others. Forum@MC, 5 p.m. April 23, Studio Theatre.
• Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance -- MinEvent, a 2008 work featuring John Cage's Thirty Pieces for String Quartet performed live by the Kronos Quartet. Also: Split Sides, a 2003 work featuring recorded music by Radiohead and Sigur Rós. Split Sides is divided into several design elements, with the order of presentation to be determined by chance -- the roll of the dice -- on the day of the performance. 8 p.m. April 25, Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center. Preperformance lecture by Shelly Gilbride, a doctoral candidate in performance studies in the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance, 7 p.m., Studio Theatre.
• Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance -- BIPED, one of Cunningham's most acclaimed works, an exploration of the choreographic possibilities of the "motion capture" technology used in computer animation, with music by Gavin Bryars. Also: eyeSpace, another piece in which chance is a factor. The eyeSpace score, Mikel Rouse's suite International Cloud Atlas will play on iPods, loaned to audience members by the company; as the tracks shuffle at random in the iPods, each person will experience a unique match of music to dance. 8 p.m. April 26, Jackson Hall.

The Mondavi Center's special offer for the April 26 performance is for faculty and staff who are members of the center's UC Davis VIP e-mail list (sign up for free).

"The Merce Cunningham Dance Company's upcoming performances at the Mondavi Center are among our most anticipated events of the year, and we want to do everything we can to make sure the campus community has every opportunity to experience them," the center declared in an April 16 e-mail to the VIP list.

So, for the April 26 show, the center announced that staff can buy a limited number of the best seats in the house for $20 each (regularly $43). Click here to buy.

"If you don't know Merce Cunningham, rest assured that this is wildly creative, innovative dance unlike anything you've ever seen," the e-mail stated.

For more information on the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, including video clips and a Mondavi Center interview with Cunningham, click here.

You can also read an article from the Mondavi Center's Artsmail newsletter.

Off campus, the Pence Gallery is presenting Merce Cunningham and Dancers, a photo exhibition by Judith Gefter, through May 1. The gallery is at 212 D St., Davis.

Free admission to all events except the April 25 and 26 performances; tickets for those shows are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.