Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Christine Dakin [sound recording].

Author

Dakin, Christine.

Publication

2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Helpern, Alice J.
• National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
• New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.

Description

5 sound discs (ca. 205 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in. +

Summary

• 06/13/07 (ca. 45 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern about her first dance experiences; her developing interest in dance in high school and at the University of Michigan; attending the American Dance Festival; moving to New York City and studying with Maggie Black; getting a scholarship at the Martha Graham School [Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance]; performing with Pearl Lang; continuing to defer other career plans in favor of dance studies and performance; auditioning for and joining the Graham apprentice company and beginning to learn the Graham repertory; her unsuccessful audition for the Martha Graham Dance Company before finally joining in 1976; studying ballet with Igor Schwezoff and Vladimir Dokoudovsky; learning her role in Graham's work Appalachian spring from Pearl Lang; interpreting Graham's work.
• 06/13/07 (ca. 45 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern about her personal connection to Graham's work and its meaning; qualities in Graham dancers; Graham's use of a movement chorus; her dance partnership with Donlin Foreman; theatre and theatricality in Graham's work; the interpretation and maintaining of Graham's repertory using the role of the Princess in Cave of the heart as an example; the role of emotion in Graham's work; the passing of Graham's roles to other performers and Graham's part in that transition; the challenge of directing and dancing at the same time.
• 06/15/07 (ca. 30 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern about Graham's work Phaedra and the experience of having had Graham's coaching; Graham's creation of Rite of spring; Graham's directing style, including her directing of Rudolf Nureyev; Graham and Nureyev's friendship; experiences on tour; Graham's collaborations; developing new work for the company's repertory and the issues raised by the possibility of bringing in other choreographers; bringing in Martha Clarke to create a piece for the company.
• 06/15/07 (ca. 30 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern further about Martha Clarke's work with the company and the issue of new work; reflects on the experience of directing the company; organizing the boycott of Graham's work and dealing with the threat to the right to perform Graham's choreography and the potential loss of the choreographic legacy; the May 9, 2002 program at City Center titled Indisputably Martha Graham including the opening work Seraphic dialogue; the revival of various Graham works including the lost knowledge of aspects other than choreography, such as production elements.
• 06/15/07 (ca. 30 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern further about reviving all aspects of Graham's works, including Phaedra; rebuilding the company's reputation and traditions; Dakin's teaching; the connection to Graham's work among dancers in Mexico; Dakin's work with Buglisi/Foreman; begins to discuss her teaching at the Neighborhood Playhouse (in New York City).
• 06/15/07 (ca. 5 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern further about her teaching at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
• 06/20/07 (ca. 20 min.). Christine Dakin speaks with Alice Helpern further about dancing as a life's work, in general and for her personally; her current artistic concerns and projects including a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to further her work collaborating with Mexican and American musicians and performers; the value of live performance; the personal challenges of being a performing artist; more on her own and Graham's connection to Mexico and the American Southwest.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project.
• Dance Audio Archive.

Subjects

• Graham, Martha > Phaedra
• Audiotapes > Dakin, C
• Nureyev, Rudolf, 1938-1993
• Dakin, Christine
• Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance
• Neighborhood Playhouse (New York, N.Y.)
• Graham, Martha > Appalachian spring
• Graham, Martha > Seraphic dialogue
• Lang, Pearl, 1921-2009
• Martha Graham Dance Company
• Clarke, Martha
• Graham, Martha > Influence

Note

• Interview with Christine Dakin conducted by Alice Helpern at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York, N.Y., on June 13, 15, and 20, 2007, as part of the Jerome Robbins Dance Divsion's Oral history project.
• For transcript see: *MGZMT 3-2475.

Access (note)

• Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Funding (note)

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

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2475

OCLC

262475234

Author

Dakin, Christine. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Christine Dakin [sound recording].

Imprint

2007.

Funding

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

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Connect to:

Request Access to Special Collections (Dance Division) material

Local Subject

Audiotapes -- Dakin, C.

Added Author

Helpern, Alice J. Interviewer

National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.

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

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2475 [sound disc]

*MGZMT 3-2475 [transcript]