Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Leon Danielian [sound recording].

Author

Danielian, Leon, 1920-1997.

Publication

1975.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Armstrong, Jocklyn.

Description

3 sound discs (ca. 199 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 68 min.), Apr. 24, 1975. Leon Danielian speaks with Jocklyn Armstrong about how he and his family had always danced, since his earliest years; his first dance lessons; taking ballet class at Mikhail Mordkin's school; performing in the Mordkin Ballet; his first solo; Lucia Chase's and Richard Pleasant's founding of Ballet Theatre [now American Ballet Theatre]; leaving Ballet Theatre after Irina Baronova and Gerry [Gerald] Sevastianov joined, and joining the de Basil company [Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo]; his repertoire while in that company; joining Sergei Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; more about his childhood and his family, in particular his sister and his Armenian heritage; ballet schools in the 1930s; classes with Mordkin; briefly, Mordkin's wife, Bronislava Pojiskaya; Katherine Hepburn; Anton Dolin; Mikhail [Michel] Fokine; Mordkin's dissatisfaction with his position after the Mordkin Ballet was absorbed into Ballet Theatre; Danielian's regret that so few roles were choreographed for him; Alexandra Danilova's and Frederic Franklin's dominant position in the company.
• Disc 2 (ca. 64 min.), May 1, 1975. Leon Danielian speaks with Jocklyn Armstrong about Alexandra Danilova and Frederic Franklin including his first time seeing Danilova perform; Danilova as a partner; Danielian's not having had one particular partner; roles he danced with Danilova; briefly, Alicia Markova; reasons he enjoyed performing in [Leonide Massine's] Gaîté parisienne; Massine's choreographic style; reasons Danielian does not want to choreograph; his admiration for Fred Astaire; Danielian's evaluation of the film First position; other dance films; his experience with regional ballet competitions; touring.
• Disc 3 (ca. 67 min.), May 7, 1975. Leon Danielian speaks with Jocklyn Armstrong about ballet education in the U.S., when he was young; the state of ballet education today, including the greater variety in student body types than in Russia or Denmark; students today, including at the American Ballet Theatre School; the analytical approach of U.S. ballet teachers; the proliferation of dance companies and the increasing rarity of independent solo performers; his teaching; [short gap] the American Ballet Theatre School including the faculty; Vera Volkova; [short gap]; more on the American Ballet Theatre School including workshop performances, the students, managing the school; more on teaching, including Mikhail Mordkin as a teacher [short gap]; an anecdote about Katherine Hepburn and Mordkin [short gap]; star quality; professional dancers and his classes; dancers and arthritis; the many, many benefits he has enjoyed thanks to his career as a dancer; regional ballet companies; teaching master classes at regional schools.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project
• Dance Audio Archive.

Subjects

• Danilova, Alexandra, 1907-1997
• Fokine, Michel, 1880-1942
• Danielian, Leon, 1920-1997
• American Ballet Theatre > School
• Audiotapes > Danielian, L
• Mordkin, Mikhail, 1881-1944
• Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

Note

• Interview with Leon Danielian conducted by Jocklyn Armstrong on Apr. 24 and May 1 and 7, 1975 in at Danielian's office at American Ballet Theatre in New York City, in connection with the Oral History Project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• Sound quality is good in discs 1 and 3 but in disc 2 the interviewee's voice is often very soft albeit for the most part easily intelligible. There are occasional extraneous noises and short gaps.

Funding (note)

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

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-388

OCLC

81744344

Author

Danielian, Leon, 1920-1997. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Leon Danielian [sound recording].

Imprint

1975.

Original Version

Original format : 2 sound reels (ca. 199 min.: 5"; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; half-track; 1 channel; polyester). Originally recorded in 1975.

Funding

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

Local Note

Open as of March 12, 2007.

For a transcript of the audio recording see: *MGZMT 5-388.

Former call no.: *MGZT 5-388

Archive original: *MGZTO 5-388 no. 1-2

Added Author

Armstrong, Jocklyn. Interviewer

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-388