Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Mariano Parra [sound recording].

Author

Parra, Mariano.

Publication

2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Goldberg, K. Meira.
• The National Endowment for the Arts, 2009-2010.
• The New York State Council on the Arts, 2009-2010.

Description

8 sound discs (ca. 470 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in. +

Summary

• Disc 1, 11/03/2009 (ca. 52 min.). Mariano Parra speaks with Meira Goldberg about his current teaching methods; briefly, the basic posture characteristic of Spanish dance; his family background and experiences; various Spanish dance cultures depending on geography and ethnic background; the concept of authenticity in Spanish dance, and changes and limitations in modern Spanish dance; seeing Ruth St. Denis perform; his early dance experiences and decision to become a dancer; briefly, the influence of the José Greco Company.
• Disc 2, 11/03/2009 (ca. 69 min.). Mariano Parra continues to speak with Meira Goldberg about the influence of a performance by the José Greco Company, especially due to the artistry of company dancer La Quica [Erika Winkler]; studying and living at Jacob's Pillow [in Lee, Mass.]; briefly, his teachers there, Margaret Craske, Ted Shawn, and Ruth St. Denis, and fellow students such as Sallie Wilson; La Meri as his teacher, her dancing and background; moving to New York; taking classes from Antony Tudor during his second year at Jacob's Pillow; returning to New York; receiving a scholarship to study with La Meri and the four years he worked with her; how to be an artist; the way Spanish dance uses concentric principles; certain Spanish dance structures and vocabularies.
• Disc 3, 11/03/2009 (ca. 57 min.). Mariano Parra speaks with Meira Goldberg about training with Juan Martinez; more on studying with La Meri; his own dance and performance style; more on his own philosophy of teaching; his first manager and first company, including Juan Martinez as the company's first choreographer; Juan Martinez' illness; the influx of Spanish dance artists to the U.S. in the 1960s, and the development of the Spanish dance form, especially with respect to compás; stories about artists who came through New York at that time as well as in earlier decades; going to Spain to study and his classes there with La Quica and Luisa Pericet; the traditional dances he learned and the need to record them.
• Disc 4, 11/10/2009 (ca. 65 min.). Mariano Parra speaks with Meira Goldberg about his family, background, and early dance training; briefly, his reasons for focusing on Spanish dance as a career, and influential dancers, especially José Greco and La Quica; briefly, possible origins of the term compás and his own teaching philosophy; performing various ethnic dance styles with La Meri at Jacob's Pillow in the mid-1950s, including a short anecdote about training with Martha Graham; his partnership and performances with the dancer Jerane Michel; other small Spanish dance companies of the 1950s-60s, and the style of Spanish dances being performed at that time; the origin of the Mariano Parra Spanish Dance Company in the early 1960s; his original company's dancers; more on Juan Martinez, his work with the company, and his influence on Parra towards an individualistic performance style; current Flamenco as compared with several works from the 1960s; the musical composition and instrumentation used to accompany Spanish dance from his early career to the present.
• Disc 5, 11/10/2009 (ca. 29 min.). Mariano Parra speaks with Meira Goldberg about expectations of male dancers during his youth and his interest in developing greater freedom of expression as a male dancer; the relationship between music and expression in a dance; briefly, the circumstances which led him to study in Spain with La Quica and the Pericet family; how he was taught in Spain as compared with dance classes in New York at that time; the subtleties of Spanish style as compared to ballet; the components of ethnic dance defined as "technique, style, and feeling"; more on "feeling" and how its use helps to maintain the dances' unique cultural identity, especially in terms of authenticity.
• Disc 6, 11/10/2009 (ca. 72 min.). Mariano Parra speaks with Meira Goldberg about technique, style, and feeling; how national identities are expressed in body carriage and dances; the complex relationship between the discipline of a style and artistic personal expression; rhythms and dynamics in dance, including anecdotes about his philosophy of teaching; his trip to Spain in 1961, including visiting his extended family there, the living conditions, and his dance lessons with the Pericet family (especially Luisa Pericet), and lessons with La Quica; impressions of performers he saw in Spain, especially Rosa Duran; his training in Spain compared with that of his training in America with La Meri; several later trips to Spain, including his study there with Maria Rosa Merced, and Enrique el Cojo; briefly, owning a restaurant in the East Village in New York City and his schedule at that time; returning from Spain the first time, and the subsequent press about his company's performances in Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, Penn.; his professional honesty about being born an American, his anglicized name and his siblings' names; his opinions on stage names and stage identities.
• Disc 7, 11/17/2009 (ca. 60 min.). Mariano Parra, as part of his oral history interview with Meira Goldberg, reads aloud and translates a program from a 1960 performance tribute to Juan Martinez, including the names of performers such as Carmen Amaya; the Spanish dance scene in New York in the 1960s; Parra reads aloud from an article about a Mariano Parra Spanish Dance Company performance at the 1974 Spring Arts Festival in Queens, N.Y.; he speaks about being a company director, his stylistic choices as a choreographer, and certain public responses to his work; his dance company's debut and early history; prior to his company, founding a Monday night loft performance series [Mondays at 9] with Jeff Duncan that eventually became Dance Theater Workshop; other performances and exhibits he organized; [Parra and Goldberg describe several photographs of his company]; his apprentices and his junior company; how the Pericets' teachings influenced his own teaching methods; his involvement with the National Association of American Dance Companies, and distinguishing between "ethnic folk" and "ethnic theater" dances; his collaborative projects with La Meri after she moved to Cape Cod, Mass., including The Ethnic Dance Festival.
• Disc 8, 11/17/2009 (ca. 66 min.). Mariano Parra speaks with Meira Goldberg about his goals as a company director and a typical structure of the company's performances; demonstrates rhythms and melodies of several dances; describes his work, Romance gitana; tells an anecdote about teaching the complexities of Spanish dance to beginners; describes the line of the arms in Spanish dance, the carriage of the body, and specific steps of the feet in relationship to the skirt; briefly speaks about his opinions and experiences relating to the concept of duende; briefly explains why he disbanded his company in 1982; briefly speaks about differences between performing in a nightclub and in a theater; briefly describes specific steps, and musical compositions used in his choreography; speaks about working with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; company performances at the Roundabout Theater in New York City; his solo, Joaquin Nin performed there and its use of music; music as inspiration; more on his teaching methods; his current role in the Spanish dance community.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project.
• Dance Audio Archive.

Subjects

• La Meri, 1898-1988
• Audiotapes > Parra, M
• Michel, Jerane
• Spanish dancing
• Mariano Parra Spanish dance company
• Dance > Study and teaching
• Flamenco
• Dance > Spain
• Tudor, Antony, 1909-1987
• Parra, Mariano
• Pericet, Luisa
• Greco, José
• Winkler, Erika
• Duncan, Jeff, 1930-1989
• José Greco Company
• Martinez, Juan 1896-1960
• Jacob's Pillow

Note

• Interview with Mariano Parra conducted by Meira Goldberg on Nov. 3, 10, and 17, 2009, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City as part of the Oral History Project.
• For transcript see: *MGZMT 3-2624.

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 4-2624

OCLC

690916362

Author

Parra, Mariano. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Mariano Parra [sound recording].

Imprint

2009.

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.

Local Subject

Spanish dancing

Added Author

Goldberg, K. Meira. Interviewer

The National Endowment for the Arts, 2009-2010.

The New York State Council on the Arts, 2009-2010.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2624

*MGZMT 3-2624