In 1971, choreographer Merce Cunningham moved his dance studio to Westbeth Artist Studios, a block away from the West Village apartment on Bank Street that he shared with his partner, the composer John Cage. Rauschenberg was studying at Black Mountain College in 1952, when Cage and Cunningham arrived to teach in summer session. This would be the start of a deep collaborative exchange between the three artists. "All of us worked totally committed, shared every intense emotion and I think performed miracles, for love only," he wrote of his bond with the two. Rauschenberg worked as the lighting and stage designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for over a decade, from 1954 to 1964, and again for discrete projects in the 1970s and 1990s. Rauschenberg was a frequent visitor to the choreographer's studio and rehearsal spaces.