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Interview with Hilda Butsova

Title: Interview with Hilda Butsova [sound recording].
Author: Butsova, Hilda.
Publication: 1975.

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Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	discs 1-4	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-334 discs 1-4	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors

Kendall, Elizabeth, 1947-

Description

4 sound discs (ca. 237 min.) : digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

Disc 1, Jan. 28, 1975 (ca. 49 min.). Hilda Butsova speaks with Elizabeth Kendall about regularly seeing Anna Pavlova dance when she was a child in London; dancing in Anna Pavlova's company including the different types of dancers in the company and the respective roles assigned to them; the lack of variety of the dancers in companies today with the exception of American Ballet Theatre; the circumstances of her joining Pavlova's company, in 1912, and her success there; the practice of assigning Russian stage names to the English dancers; their European tour including a visit to Russia in 1914; performing as an extra dancer in the Ballets russes in 1911; the dancers she saw performing in the Ballets russes including Pavlova, Karsavina, Adolf Bolm, and Nijinsky; an anecdote about Mikhail Mordkin; her early performing experience, in English pantomime; her early interest in dancing; her early dance training and occasional performances including the restrictions imposed by the child labor laws; going to London to study at the Stedmans Academy when she was 11 years old; living with her teacher on a house boat near Hampton Court; her course of study at the Academy; her role as the Oyster Queen in a student production of a ballet based on Alice in Wonderland; the lack of male dancers; being seen by Pavlova at the Academy and subsequently joining her company; the other English dancers in the company [ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 2].
Disc 2, Jan. 28, 1975 (ca. 49 min.). Hilda Butsova continues to speak with Elizabeth Kendall about the composition of Anna Pavlova's company; touring in the U.S., Germany, and Russia in 1912-1914; a typical working day; Pavlova's perfectionism; Butsova's frequently being called on to substitute; the company's repertoire including the new works: [Ivan Clustine's] Romance of the mummy, [Clustine's] Dionysus, and [Clustine's] Pavlova Gavotte; Michel Fokine's works for the company, Seven daughters of the ghost [sic; should be mountain] king and Préludes; working with Fokine; more on Seven daughters of the [mountain] king including its challenges for the dancers; its revival under Fokine's direction; Pavlova's Autumn leaves; Pavlova's ability to completely inhabit a role such as the dying swan and Giselle; Pavlova as an actress; her desire to bring dance to people everywhere including anecdotes regarding performances in Buenos Aires and in Trinidad; more touring including Pavlova's insistence that the dancers visit cultural attractions; reasons Butsova thinks the company's dancers almost never had injuries; studying with [Aleksandr Emel'ianovich] Volinin; [Enrico] Cecchetti and Pavlova; Butsova's substituting for Nijinsky in his variation in Les sylphides; a performance anecdote about Nijinsky, Pavlova, and Butsova [ends abruptly].
Disc 3 (ca. 73 min.). [Begins abruptly.] Hilda Butsova speaks with Elizabeth Kendall about Nottingham [her birthplace]; Anna Pavlova's company's finances; reasons she thinks companies, for example, New York City Ballet, should not present a large number of new ballets every season; more on the company's finances including Victor Dandre's role; difficulties she encountered when she first joined the company including an anecdote about Pavlova's harsh criticism and subsequent remorse; some of her roles; an anecdote about being dismissed by the ballet master in connection with her role in [Ivan Clustine's] Amarilla; touring in South America including their relatively wild social life there and Pavlova's reaction; the relations between the English and American dancers and the Russian dancers; more on touring and Pavlova's insistence that the dancers seek out the available cultural attractions; an anecdote regarding Pavlova and a particular dress; Ivy House [brief extraneous noise followed by more on Ivy House]; an anecdote about their stay in Panama City; Pavlova's stoicism and discipline.
Disc 4, Apr. 7, 1975 (ca. 68 min.). Hilda Butsova speaks with Elizabeth Kendall about touring [with Anna Pavlova Company] in Asia, including her reminiscences about the hotels, the food, and the theaters as well as Pavlova's deep interest in Asian dance; traveling by ship including an anecdote about a voyage to Montevideo, Uruguay; performance anecdotes about an earthquake in Chile and a fire in a U.S. town [gap]; Pavlova's insistence on dancing even when sick; an anecdote about substituting for Pavlova in the Rose variation in The sleeping beauty; simplicity and lyricism rather than technique per se as the key to the beauty of Pavlova's dancing [brief interruption]; her strong feet and good balance; her lightness as for example in Coppelia; her preference for more dramatic roles; her Giselle, in particular, the mad scene; Butsova's regret that Swan lake was not in Pavlova's repertory; Pavlova as a true artist; Anton Dolin; the greatly increased prominence of the male role in pas de deux since Pavlova's time.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subjects

Note

Interview with Hilda Butsova conducted by Elizabeth Kendall on January 28, 1975 and April 7, 1975 in New York City in connection with the Oral History Project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Open as of March 1976.
Sound quality is good. There are occasional short gaps mainly when the oral author is speaking "off the record" as well as occasional extraneous noise.

Funding (note)

The assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts is gratefully acknowledged.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-334

OCLC

82990064

Author

Butsova, Hilda. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Hilda Butsova [sound recording].

Imprint

1975.

Original Version

Original format : 2 sound reels (ca. 237 min.: reel 1: side 1: 97 min.; side 2: 73 min.; reel 2: 67 min. min.; 5"; 1 channel; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; half-track; polyester). Originally recorded in 1975.

Funding

The assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts is gratefully acknowledged.

Local Note

For a transcript of the audio recording see: *MGZMT 5-334.

Former call no.: *MGZT 5-334

Archive original: *MGZTO 5-334 no. 1-2

Local Subject

Dance company tours.

Added Author

Kendall, Elizabeth, 1947- Interviewer

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-334

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