- Additional Authors
- Found In
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Description
- 1 streaming audio file (44 minutes) : digital, stereo
- Summary
- Begins abruptly, Dorothy Berea [Silver] speaks with David Vaughan about the scarcity of photographs of Merce Cunningham's works from the early 1940's, especially Root of the unfocus (1944) and Totem ancestor (1942); Vaughan briefly speaks about his first experiences seeing the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performances in New York, 1953; Berea speaks about Eleanor Goff recommending Merce Cunningham's dance classes to her in the fall of 1946; more on Cunningham's classes at the Dance Player Studios on 56th street, including anecdotes on John Cage as the class accompanist; Berea compares Cunningham's current technique classes to the early era classes, including the material that she teaches; briefly, relates a Cunningham class exercise - the eight directions - with the opening movements of the Sixteen dances for soloist and company of three (1951); they discuss a specific Cunningham movement that Silver recalls and demonstrates; Berea speaks about her "body memory" of the Cunningham technique; Berea speaks about simultaneously dancing with the Martha Graham Company and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company; her admiration of the organized way Cunningham worked with his dancers; more on the various rehearsal studios in the late 1940's and early 1950's; they discuss the first piece Berea performed in as a Company member, Dromenon (1947); Berea recalls and demonstrates some of the movements from Dromenon; they discuss the costuming of Dromenon and other costumes from early Cunningham works; Berea speaks about Cage's pine branch headdresses for Dromenon; Berea briefly compares the ritual style of Dromenon with a piece for Ballet Society from the same year, Seasons (1947); Berea speaks about Cunningham's reluctance to discuss the subjects of his works in rehearsals and deciding to make her own meanings of the material unless Cunningham gave her a correction on her approach; they speculate on possible precursors and works related to Dromenon - Princess zondilda and her entourage (1946) and Four walls (1944); they discuss another work that Berea danced in, Diverson (1948); Berea recalls the costumes for Diversion; Berea speaks briefly about the opening of Pool of darkness (1950) and the atmosphere of rehearsals for it; she speaks about dancing Tanaquil LeClerqc's role in Amores (1949); Berea recalls the physical similarities between herself and fellow Company dancer, Mili Churchill; they speak about another Company dancer, Natanya Neumann and her recent death; Berea speaks briefly about being pregnant and teaching her role in Sixteen dances to Neumann; they speak about the Company's 1952 performances at Brandeis University and Berea's resignation before those performances; more about Sixteen dances, including her enjoyment of dancing it and the costumes for it; they briefly discuss other cast members of Sixteen dances; Berea speaks about other Company members from her era: Churchill, Goff and her ex-husband Seymour Krim, Judith Martin, and Sara Hamill; Berea briefly speaks about the struggles of being a dancer; more on Cunningham's dance classes and the challenges she faced in them, ends abruptly.
- Alternative Title
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Subjects
- Sound recordings
- Interviews
- Sixteen dances for soloist and company of three (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
- Pool of darkness (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
- Dromenon (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
- Diversion (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
- Merce Cunningham Dance Company
- Neumann, Natanya, > dancer
- Goff, Eleanor, > dancer
- Cunningham, Merce, > choreographer
- Churchill, Mili, > dancer
- Cage, John, > instrumentalist
- Berea, Dorothy > Interviews
- Genre/Form
- Interviews.
- Sound recordings.
- Note
- Title provided by cataloger based on audition and handwritten note on original container.
- Handwritten note on original container: "Dorothy Berea Silver ; Greensboro, North Carolina ; 3 November 1978".
- David Vaughan interviews Dorothy Berea Silver in Greensboro, North Carolina on November 3, 1978. This interview was created as research for David Vaughan's book, Merce Cunningham: Fifty years (New York, Aperture).
- Sound quality is mostly good; at times the interviewee is slightly muffled.
- Donor's inventory number: C371.
- Access (note)
- Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Source (note)
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
- Linking Entry (note)
- Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Call Number
- *LTC-A 1194
- OCLC
- 900292173
- Author
Berea, Dorothy, interviewee.
- Title
Interview with Dorothy Berea Silver, 1978-11-03.
- Publisher
November 3, 1978.
- Playing Time
004429
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
audiocassette
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Event
Recorded in, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1978 November 3.
- Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Original Version
Archival original: (1 audio cassette (44 minutes) : analog) in *LTC-A 1194.
- Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Local Note
Transferred from original analog cassette by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
- Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Vaughan, David, 1924- interviewer.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
- Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Research Call Number
*LTC-A 1194