- Additional Authors
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
- Found In
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Description
- 1 streaming audio file (17 minutes) : digital, stereo
- Summary
- Merce Cunningham speaks about abstraction, movement, and symmetry in the body; how he starts to choreograph new works; the audience response to his [Merce Cunningham Dance] Company's performance in Chandigarh, [Punjab]; while touring, his Company's assessment of the various conditions of performance spaces, especially the floor; how the size of the space impacts the choice of works to be performed; the set-up of the pianos in the space, especially David Tudor's wish that the pianos are set up in the front of the stage; his approaches to choreography and, briefly, teaching; a brief anecdote about a conversation that Cunningham had at a party; briefly, the general audience response to his Company's performances in London; his Company's residency at Connecticut College in the summer of 1958, including teaching classes and rehearsing his Antic Meet, and Summerspace; his intentions behind the title and some of the movements for Summerspace; the ballroom rehearsal space during the residency and how this space impacted the choreography; some of the choreographic structures and chance methods that he devised for Summerspace; his numbering system for the movements in Summerspace; his attention to individual dancers' pathways in Summerspace and the assembling the dancers in the piece; the premiere of Summerspace and his perception of the audience response; ends abruptly.
- Alternative Title
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Lectures.
- Note
- This recording seems to be a rehearsal of a lecture by Merce Cunningham about his choreography, to be given at an unspecified date and location.
- Title and date provided by cataloger based on audition, handwritten note taped to the original reel hub, and collection context.
- Handwritten note taped to original container: "I/77".
- A similar version of this lecture was recorded in October 1966, on a separate recording with the classmark *LT-7-A 2360, and is available for separate streaming at http://link.nypl.org/yTL5k8FvRkKPQkXO5gOhrwE.
- Sound quality is mostly good; overall the speaker is recorded at a slightly low volume and there are occasional sound and music samples that play simultaneous to the speaker.
- Donor's inventory number: R019.
- Access (note)
- Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Event (note)
- Recorded in an unidentified location.
- Source (note)
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
- Linking Entry (note)
- Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Call Number
- *LT-7-A 2447
- OCLC
- 909030622
- Author
Cunningham, Merce, speaker.
- Title
Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography.
- Production
[probably late 1960's?].
- Playing Time
001703
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
audiotape reel
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Event
Recorded in an unidentified location.
- Original Version
Archival original: (1 audiotape reel (17 minutes) : analog, 7 1/2 ips, half track, mono ; 5 in. rewound onto an archival 7 in. reel) in *LT-7-A 2447.
- Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Local Note
Transferred from original open tape reel by the New York Public Library's Audio and Moving Image Preservation (PAMI) sound engineering staff at the Library for the Performing Arts on February 24, 2015.
- Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
- Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Research Call Number
*LT-7-A 2447