Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Alexandra Danilova [sound recording].

Author

Danilova, Alexandra, 1907-1997

Publication

1978-1979.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Conway, Peter, 1929 July 18-
• National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
• New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.

Description

15 sound discs (ca. 704 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1, Dec. 4, 1978 (ca. 50 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway about George Balanchine's early choreography; her roles at the Maryinsky Theater, in particular the Firebird in [Feodor] Lopukhov's production; the young girl [Ta-hor] in Mikhail Fokine's Cléopâtre; auditioning for Diaghilev; Nicholas Efimov; her time in the Ballets russes, including her dancing with Serge Lifar in Leonide Massine's ballet Zéphire et Flore and with Anton Dolin and Olga Spessivtzeva in Swan lake; an anecdote about Balanchine substituting for Alicia Markova at a performance of his work Chant du rossignol [trails off and continues directly on disc 2].
• Disc 2, Dec. 4, 1978 (ca. 45 min.). Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about her time in the Ballets russes [short break]; Balanchine's advice about compensation; Anton Dolin and other dancers in the company including Lydia Sokolova, Alice Nikitina, including an anecdote about her and Bronislava Nijinska's Romeo and Juliet; Felia Doubrovska, Tamara Geva, and Vera Petrova; Balanchine's work La pastorale; his Jack in the box; the company's London season, in 1926, including its one-act version of Swan lake; Serge Lifar; Balanchine's work Triumph of Neptune; Massine as guest choreographer.
• Disc 3, Dec. 8, 1978 (ca. 41 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway about Balanchine's ballet Barabau; performing in Fokine's ballets Petrouchka and Prince Igor; performing in Leonide Massine's work La boutique fantasque; Nijinska's ballet Tentations de la bergère [ou L'amour vainqueur]; her partners; Balanchine and Nijinska's ballet Romeo and Juliet; various dancers who performed with the company including Olga Spessivtzeva; Lubov Tchernicheva; Anatole Vilzak and his wife Ludmila Schollar; Stanislas Idzikowski; Balanchine's ballet La chatte, including its use of oil cloth; Massine's ballet Pas d'acier [trails off and is continued directly on disc 4].
• Disc 4, Dec. 8, 1978 (ca. 35 min.). Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about Leonide Massine's ballet Pas d'acier; Massine's ballet Ode [apparently, not the 1972 work by Lorca Massine]; working with Massine; his ballet Mercure; Balanchine's ballet Apollon musagète [Apollo]; her relationship with Balanchine at this time; reasons Massine's ballets are not currently popular; the costumes in Apollo; Balanchine's ballet Gods go a-begging; his work Le bal.
• Disc 5, Dec. 13, 1978 (ca. 50 min.). Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about Balanchine's work Bal; Diaghilev's death; her activities during the initial period after his death; her relationship with Balanchine, including their eventual separation; her brief marriage to Giuseppe Massera; joining the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo [the company founded in 1931 by René Blum and directed with Col. W. de Basil; called the Monte Carlo Ballet Russe in the Library's catalog]; Balanchine's relationship with the company; the so-called baby ballerinas [Irina Baronova, Tamara Toumanova, and Tatiana Riabouchinska] including their training and their mothers; Leonide Massine's ballet Le beau Danube; David Lichine and other male dancers in the company; the company's repertoire including Massine's ballets Choreartium, La plage [The beach], and Presages, and Balanchine' ballet Concurrence [trails off and continues directly on disc 6].
• Disc 6, Dec. 13, 1978 (ca. 43 min.). Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo [Monte Carlo Ballet Russe] including André Eglevsky; her and Eglevsky's teacher, Nicholas [Nikolaĭ Gustavovich] Legat; her thoughts on Col. W. de Basil; other dancers in the company including Roland Guerard, Vera Zorina, and Sono Osato; Leonide Massine's ballet Jardin public; the revival of his ballets Les matelots and Good humored ladies; other ballets in the repertoire including Michel Fokine's Schéhérazade, Massine's Le beau Danube, and Frederick Ashton's Devil's holiday; working with Ashton; leaving the company to join Massine, René Blum, and Serge Denham's company Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo [founded in 1936; Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the Library's catalog]; working with Bronislava Nijinska; Massine's work Soleil de nuit; Nijinska's ballets Les noces including as compared with Jerome Robbins' version; Alberto Alonso; other dancers.
• Disc 7, Dec. 20, 1978 (ca. 53 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway further about her joining Sergei Denham's company; Nina Verchinina; Eglevsky as a partner; an anecdote about Lubov Rostova's costume catching fire; David Lichine's ballet Nocturne; the company's first tour in New York City, under the aegis of Sol Hurok; more on working with Nijinska, including learning Bolero and Les biches; performing The firebird with Boris Kniaseff; Michel Fokine's ballet Papillons; Balanchine's ballet Le bourgeois gentilhomme; Lichine as a choreographer; more on her first marriage;meeting Mathilde Kshessinska; performing in Lichine's ballet Francesca da Rimini [trails off and is continued directly on disc 8].
• Disc 8, Dec. 20, 1978 (ca. 45 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks further with Peter Conway about leaving Col. W. de Basil's company and joining Sergei Denham's company, including her thoughts on Denham; an anecdote about Sol Hurok; Boris Kochno; her early days in Denham's company including performing in Leonide Massine's and Argentinita's Capriccio espagnol; Massine's works Nobilissima visione and Seventh symphony; performing in Massine's Gaîté parisienne; her relationship with Massine, including his egotism; performing in Alexandra Fedorova's version of Act III of Swan lake; her marriage to Kazimir Kokich; Massine's work Bacchanale; dancers in the company including Igor Youskevitch, Frederic Franklin, Michel Panaieff, Marc Platt, and Rosella Hightower; Massine's ballet Rouge et noir; more on Frederick Ashton's Devil's holiday.
• Disc 9, Jan 6, 1979 (ca. 51 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway about Leonide Massine's and Argentinita's work Capriccio espagnol, including the filming of it for the [1942] motion picture Spanish Fiesta; Marc Platt's ballet Ghost town; Massine's ballet Union Pacific; or The golden spike; Platt as a dancer; Massine's ballet Vienna 1814; more on her partners including André Eglevsky, Massine, and George Zoritch; Kazimir Kokich; Balanchine's ballet Poker game [original title: Card party; later re-titled Jeu de cartes]; Massine's work New Yorker; Tatania Chamié, including her talent for comedy; Balanchine's ballet Baiser de la fée; Alicia Markova's move to American Ballet Theatre; Massine's works Labyrinth and Saratoga; Alexandra Fedorova; Agnes de Mille's ballet Rodeo; the musical comedy Song of Norway [trails off and continues directly on disc 10].
• Disc 10, Jan. 6, 1979 (ca. 44 min.). Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about the musical comedy Song of Norway; reasons Leonide Massine broke with Sergei Denham; Pilar Lopez's ballet Cuckold's fair; Balanchine's work Danses concertantes; Maria Tallchief; briefly, Igor Shvetzov's work Red poppy and Bronislava Nijinska's work Ancient Russia; Balanchine's work Mozartiana; his work Concerto barocco; recreating Petipa's Raymonda with Balanchine.
• Disc 11, Jan. 12, 1979 (ca. 53 min.). Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about her and Balanchine's production of Raymonda including the audience response; Ruth Page; performing the Sleepwalker role in Balanchine's ballet La sonnambula [Night shadow]; her partners, including Todd Bolender, Frederick Franklin, and Nicholas Magallanes; life on tour; the role of Giselle; more on Night shadow; Agnes de Mille; René Blum; the "jinx" on Ruth Page's work The bells; Edward Caton's ballet Lola Montez; Caton as a dancer and a teacher; Valerie Bettis's work Virginia sampler [trails off and continues directly on disc 12].
• Disc 12, Jan. 12, 1979 (ca. 44 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway about Antonia Cobos and her ballets The mute wife and Madroños; Anton Dolin's work Pas de quartre; Tatiana Chamié's ballet Prima ballerina; Ruthanna Boris's work Quelques fleurs; Yvette Chauviré; Nina Novak; participating in the Jacob's Pillow dance festival; her staging of Paquita; performing as a guest artist with Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1949; Margot Fonteyn; other dancers in the company, including Moira Shearer; reasons she left Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; performing as a guest artist with the London Festival Ballet; more on Nina Novak.
• Disc 13, Jan. 15, 1979 (ca. 49 min.) Alexandra Danilova continues to speak with Peter Conway about Nina Novak and her increasing influence on Sergei Denham and the departure of many dancers, including Danilova, Leonide Massine, and Frederick Franklin; performing with the Slavenska-Franklin Ballet, including in Zachary Solov's ballet Mademoiselle Fifi; other works she danced with the Slavenska-Franklin Ballet; the company's tour in Japan, including Danilova's special interest in Japan; Slavenska's work Portrait of a ballerina; forming and touring with her own company Great Moments of the Ballet; her dislike of the color purple; an anecdote about Diaghilev and the color of her tights; her special design for her tutu for the Black Swan pas de deux [trails off and continues directly on disc 14].
• Disc 14, Jan. 15, 1979 (ca. 38 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway about her shoes; problems with stages on tour; Michel Fokine's working methods; her dislike of dancing with bare feet; her partners including Oleg Tupine; Alicia Alonso as a dancer; more on performing with her own company; performing in the musical comedy Oh Captain!, including dancing with Tony Randall; winning the Capezio dance award.
• Disc 15, 1979 (ca. 63 min.). Alexandra Danilova speaks with Peter Conway about creating the ballet Les diamants for the Metropolitan Opera ballet; creating a dance for the opera La giaconda (for the Dance of the hours); other works she choreographed for the Metropolitan Opera and the principal dancers, including Bruce Marks, Lupe Serrano, and Violette Verdy; staging Coppélia at La Scala (Teatro alla Scala) with Carla Fracci [as Swanilda]; her staging The nutcracker for the National Ballet in Wash. D.C.; teaching at the Edith James School in Dallas, Texas, immediately after leaving the Ballet Russe; Coppélia, including the production Nikolaĭ Sergeev staged for her; staging Coppélia with Balanchine for the New York City Ballet including rehearsing Patricia McBride, Gelsey Kirkland, and other dancers; her staging of Les sylphides for the New York City Ballet including the use of tunics; staging and choreographing works for the [School of American Ballet] workshop performances; her excellent working relationship with Balanchine; her happiness with her career and an anecdote about certain prophecies concerning Balanchine, Danilova, and other dancers that came true.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project
• Dance Audio Archive

Subjects

• Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
• Blum, René, 1878-1942
• Diamants (Choreographic work : Danilova, A)
• Danilova, Alexandra, 1907-1997
• Fokine, Michel, 1880-1942
• Original Ballet Russe
• Platt, Marc, 1913-2014
• Balanchine, George
• Coppélia (Choreographic work : Balanchine and Danilova, A after Petipa, M)
• Massine, Leonide, 1896-1979
• Basil, W. de
• Denham, Sergei, 1896-1970
• Ballets russes
• Metropolitan Opera (New York, N.Y.) > Ballet
• Slavenska-Franklin Ballet
• Diaghilev, Serge, 1872-1929
• Fonteyn, Margot, 1919-1991

Note

• Interview with Alexandra Danilova conducted by Peter Conway on Dec. 4, 8, 13, and 20, 1978 and Jan. 6, 12, 15, and 29, 1979 in New York City, for the New York Public Library Dance Collection Oral History Project.
• Overall sound quality is very good. There is occasional extraneous noise.

Funding (note)

• Preservation was funded in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.

System Details (note)

• Transferred from 4 sound tape reels (11 hr., 44 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec..; originally recorded on Dec. 4, 8, 18, and 20, 1978 and Jan. 6, 12, 15, and 29, 1979) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2008.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-592

OCLC

82636289

Author

Danilova, Alexandra, 1907-1997, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Alexandra Danilova [sound recording].

Imprint

1978-1979.

System Details

Transferred from 4 sound tape reels (11 hr., 44 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec..; originally recorded on Dec. 4, 8, 18, and 20, 1978 and Jan. 6, 12, 15, and 29, 1979) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2008.

Funding

Preservation was funded in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.

Local Note

For transcript of interview, see entry under: *MGZMT 5-592.

Former call number: *MGZT 5-592

Dubbing master: *MGZTD 4-592 nos. 1-15

Archive original: *MGZTO 5-592 nos. 1-4

Added Author

Conway, Peter, 1929 July 18- Interviewer

National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.

New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-592