Research Catalog

Title

Interview with David Gordon. June 4 and 6, 2012.

Author

Gordon, David, 1936-2022

Publication

2012

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Kourlas, Gia

Description

4 compact discs (approximately four hours and 14 minutes ) : digital; 4 3/4 in. +

Summary

• Disc 1, approximately 1 hour and 11 minutes, June 4, 2012. David Gordon speaks with Gia Kourlas about his childhood and family life; discovering theater and dance; meeting Jimmy [James] Waring and dancing for him; his reason for changing his major in college, to the visual arts; his feeling that he was different from his fellow students; Barbara Kastle and her introducing him to the Modern Dance Club and how this led in turn to his acting in a school production; Jimmy Waring's mentoring of him and his introducing him to Valda Setterfield; taking classes with Merce Cunningham and in ballet; the first two dances he created followed by his creating a duet for himself and Valda Setterfield; becoming involved with Judson Dance Theatre including his works Helen's dance and Mannequin; his work The matter, including how it and Mannequin were influenced by his window display work; his use of corps members, including for example as in his work Beginning of the end of the...; changes in his choreography resulting from the use of non-proscenium stages and of film; his relationship with Judson Dance Theatre, including his work Walks and digressions, its negative reception, and his abandoning choreography for four years; continuing to work with Yvonne Rainer and returning to choreography, including his works Sleep walking and The matter; the Grand Union concerts; forming the Pick Up Performance company.
• Disc 2, approximately 1 hour and 6 minutes, June 4, 2012. David Gordon speaks with Gia Kourlas about his work with the National Endowment for the Arts and how this led to forming The Pick Up Performance Company; Arlene Croce; briefly, his works Random breakfast and Silver pieces (also called at one point, Fragments); his work Chair dance and how Valda Setterfield's car accident and rehabilitation led to its creation; the text sections; how Chair dance has taken on a life of its own that does not necessarily reflect his intentions; its influence on his subsequent work; other "chair" dances; Arlene Croce and her profile of him in The New Yorker; his work at Dance Theater Workshop including Trying times; creating a ballet [Field, chair and mountain] at ABT [American Ballet Theatre] including how this differed from his prior choreographic experiences; an anecdote about Martine van Hamel; his next ballet for ABT [Murder]; how much he enjoyed working with ABT.
• Disc 3, approximately 1 hour and 7 minutes, June 6, 2012. David Gordon speaks with Gia Kourlas about his work The matter; his feelings about his own past, the past in general, and his work Beginning of the end of the...; more on changing his choreographic method to allow for more input from the dancers; the changes in his approach when working with American Ballet Theatre dancers including an anecdote about Mikhail Baryshnikov; his United States Project; his work The mysteries and what's so funny and the process of its creation; his parents' attitude toward his work; his son Ain [Gordon] including how they first began collaborating, at Naropa University; their work The family business including its source material and the creative process; their collaborative theater work The First Picture Show including its source material and the creative process; reasons producing this work was not a happy experience for him.
• Disc 4, approximately 50 minutes, June 6, 2012. David Gordon speaks with Gia Kourlas about his return to the dance world in New York City thanks to the support of Laurie Uprichard at Danspace; his work Autobiography of a liar; his thoughts on movement, including the significance of context and the irrelevance, to him, of whether a movement constitutes dance; his [2004] production of [Eugene] Ionesco's play The chairs for BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music] including a rehearsal anecdote about himself and Valda Setterfield; his concepts of reality and fiction; his affinity for surrealism and the artists Ionesco, Pirandello, Brecht, and Fellini; his idea of working with existing staged material such as film excerpts in the upcoming revival of The matter; principles versus stubbornness; his complicated relationship with his parents and heritage.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subjects

• Gordon, David, 1936-2022 > Interviews
• Audiotapes > Gordon, D
• Matter (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Rainer, Yvonne, 1934-
• Judson Dance Theater
• Grand Union (Performance group)
• Field, chair and mountain (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Setterfield, Valda
• Chair dance (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• American Ballet Theatre
• Pick Up Performance Company (New York, N.Y.)
• Croce, Arlene
• Gordon, Ain
• Family business (Choreographic work : Gordon, A. and Gordon, D.)
• Waring, James, 1922-1975
• Mysteries and what's so funny? (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Beginning of the end of the... (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Surrealism

Note

• Interview with David Gordon conducted by Gia Kourlas on June 4 and June 6, 2012 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City as part of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division's Oral History Project.
• For transcript see: *MGZMT 3-2919.
• Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

• Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Funding (note)

• This interview was made possible 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.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2919

OCLC

890315620

Author

Gordon, David, 1936-2022, interviewee.

Title

Interview with David Gordon. June 4 and 6, 2012.

Production

2012

Type of Content

text

spoken word

Type of Medium

unmediated

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

volume

Event

Recorded by Gia Kourlas for and at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2012, June 4 and 6 New York, N.Y.

Funding

This interview was made possible 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.

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Added Author

Kourlas, Gia, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2919

*MGZMT 3-2919