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For its 50th anniversary, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will be in Royce Hall performing pieces that represent the last five decades of dance.

What is it like to work for a genius? For Daniel Roberts, a dancer with the legendary Merce Cunningham Dance Company, speaking about his job is often easier than actually doing it.

Tonight through Saturday, Roberts and the rest of Cunningham’s troupe will perform at Royce Hall as part of the company’s 50th anniversary celebration, a retrospective of early works alongside recent creations.

Dance aficionados wax poetic about the work of “Merce,” as everyone casually calls him, a modern dance innovator revered around the world. But it takes one of his dancers to reveal the highs and lows of a career spent with the acclaimed artist.

Roberts will be the first to say that working for Cunningham is not an easy task. One of the most striking features of life as a Cunningham dancer is the practice of dancing without music. Oftentimes the company will first hear a piece’s score only a few days before an actual performance.

“We rehearse in silence,” Roberts said. “When I first saw the company working, I couldn’t believe it. I sat and watched them for three hours, and for the most part, it was quiet. And I thought, God, it takes a lot of discipline to do that.”

The steps themselves also present certain challenges. Cunningham began working with the computer software LifeForms in 1991 as a way of toying with structure and movement in the creation of his dances. As a result, the work became even more intricate than it already was.

“I think it took everyone for a shock,” said Roberts. “It definitely added more complexity to the arms. The legs are always complicated, but it was the new arm positions that kind of threw everybody. Sometimes we’re like, ‘How the hell am I going to do this?’ But somehow it works and becomes movement.”

Roberts was first introduced to Cunningham as an undergraduate studying dance notation at The Ohio State University where he reconstructed the solo “Totem Ancestor” from handwritten notes. The project led him to New York where he performed the work in a film that was being made about Cunningham. Shortly after graduation, he was invited to join the company.

Last year, Roberts was asked to set “Totem Ancestor” on the Kansas City Ballet, and the process only reaffirmed for him what it means to be a Cunningham dancer.

“It made me see the dance in a whole different realm,” he said. “How I had to teach it and what kind of person it took to do it: you have to be willing to open your mind and consider the possibility of all these crazy things. It’s about experiencing the work, not just, ‘this looks pretty.’ It’s a lifestyle choice.”

Part of what makes the process a little easier is the fact that Cunningham himself, at 83, is still the motivating force behind the group. He teaches company class and creates new dances year after year. And although, according to Roberts, Cunningham doesn’t offer much feedback on their performances, there is a level of trust between dancers and choreographer that makes the work gratifying.

“It can be really frustrating,” Roberts said. “You keep going over and over things that are really difficult, wondering if he’s happy with what you’re doing. And you might never know.”

But the trust goes both ways. The dancers also have to believe in Cunningham.

“We’re often working on a piece a couple of weeks before it’s going to open, thinking, is he going to get it done? But I think he knows that he’ll do what he has to do, and we’ll do what we have to do, and it’ll work. And it happens,” Roberts added.