Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Arnold Haskell. May 24, 26, and 28,1976, 1976.

Author

Haskell, Arnold L. (Arnold Lionel), 1903-1980

Publication

1976

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Pinsker, Adam

Description

4 sound discs (approximately two hours and 33 minutes) : digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (approximately 43 minutes), May 24, 1976. Arnold Haskell speaks with Adam Pinsker about Wassili de Basil, René Blum, and the Ballets russes de Monte Carlo including their respective relationships to each other and to the company; the company's first performances, in London and its establishing of itself among the former patrons of Serge Diaghilev's company [the Ballets russes]; the excellence of the dancers as a reason for the success of the new company; the decline in the quality of the dancers in the Ballets russes after 1921; Blum as a person and as a producer of plays; possible reasons for de Basil's respective breaks with Blum and with Leonide Massine including de Basil's vanity; the demise of de Basil's company after World War II; briefly, the Marquis Georges du Cuevas and his ballet company [Grand ballet de Monte Carlo]; anecdotes about de Basil and his company; ballets that Haskell would like to see revived; Diaghilev's influence on the work of the composers, painters, and designers he commissioned through his criticism and suggestions including even Matisse; reasons he thinks [Nijinska Bronislava's] Le train bleu should not be revived; an anecdote about Nijinska's Romeo and Juliet; his view that almost all of the ballets of Frederick Ashton should be revived; Pearl Argyle; briefly, the choreographer Susan Solomon; Agnes de Mille [ends abruptly].
• Disc 2 (approximately 43 minutes). May 24, 1976. Arnold Haskell speaks with Adam Pinsker about dance criticism in the United Kingdom as compared with that in the United States and in Russia; Keith Lester [ at 4:30 into the recording, the second part of the interview, conducted on May 26, 1976, begins; there is a short gap as sound level is adjusted]; Haskell speaks about dance and ballet in the United Kingdom; the founding of the Camargo [Ballet] Society including the role of Phillip Richardson; the three groups of people for whom the Society was a showcase: Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin; Marie Rambert and her studio; and Ninette de Valois and the Academy of Choreographic Art; De Valois's ballet Job; De Valois's establishing of her ballet company [Vic-Wells Company] and school at Sadler's Wells Theatre; De Valois's gifts as an administrator and artistic director; other artists who contributed greatly to de Valois's company including Constant Lambert and Sophie Fedorovitch; De Valois as a choreographer including her ballets The rake's progress, Don Quixote, and Bar aux Folies-Bergère; Marie Rambert and reasons her company has not had the success of De Valois's company [ends abruptly].
• Disc 3 (approximately one hour and 38 seconds). May 26 or 28, 1976. Arnold Haskell speaks with Adam Pinsker about ballet dancers whom he thinks exceptional including Gala [Galina Sergeevna] Ulanova and Anna Pavlova; Robert Helpmann; other dancers he has particularly admired; Indian [Hindu] dance; [︠I︡Uriĭ Nikolaevich] Grigorovichs choreography including his ballet Spartacus; his admiration for the French dancer Claire Sombert; the Royal Ballet School including its conceptual basis; attracting and keeping boys at the School in its early years; homosexuality and dance; the importance of the students' receiving a broad general education; dance curricula in schools in the United Kingdom; the different approaches of the teachers of the academic subjects and of the dance teachers at the School; the students' realistic sense of their capabilities; Katherine Dunham [ends abruptly but continues on disc 4].
• Disc 4 (approximately five minutes). May 26 or 28, 1976. Arnold Haskell speaks with Adam Pinsker about the relationship of religion and dancing [ends abruptly].

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subjects

• Royal Ballet
• Audiotapes > Haskell, A
• Basil, W. de
• Royal Ballet > School
• Ballets russes de Monte Carlo
• Homosexuality and dance
• Vic-Wells Ballet
• Rambert, Marie
• Pavlova, Anna, 1881-1931
• Camargo Ballet Society
• De Valois, Ninette, 1898-2001
• Blum, René, 1878-1942
• Haskell, Arnold L (Arnold Lionel), 1903-1980

Note

• Interview with Arnold Haskell conducted by Adam Pinsker on May 24, 26, and 28, 1976 at Haskell's home in Bath, England, for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division's Oral History Project.
• Title supplied by cataloger.
• Sound quality is good overall. The recording is marred by extraneous noise including "tape hiss" and occasional short gaps, but the speakers' voices are almost always easily intelligible.

Funding (note)

• The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Contents

Former summary: CONTENTS. - Reel 1. Track 1: Vasili de Basil and the Ballet Russe; René Blum and his position in the company; discussion of ballet in London throughout the interview; Marquis de Cuevas; brief observations on the last Dyaghilev ballets. Track 2: Haskell discusses Galina Ulanova, Anna Pavlova, Robert Helpmann; Indian dance. Reel 2. Track 1 [track 2 blank]: Royal Ballet School; homosexuality and dance; Katherine Dunham.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-347

OCLC

78126473

Author

Haskell, Arnold L. (Arnold Lionel), 1903-1980, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Arnold Haskell. May 24, 26, and 28,1976, 1976.

Production

1976

Type of Content

spoken word

Type of Medium

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

Event

Recorded by Adam Pinsker 1976, May 24, 26, and 28 Bath (England.)

Funding

The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Original Version

Original format: two sound reels (approximately two hours and 33 minutes); 5 inches; polyester, full-track; 1 7/8 ips.; transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2013.

Local Note

For transcript of interview: see *MGZMT 5-347

Former classmark: *MGZT 5-347

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Added Author

Pinsker, Adam, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-347