Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Anna Youskevitch [sound recording].

Author

Youskevitch, Anna Scarpova.

Publication

1974-75.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Hunt, Marilyn, 1937-

Description

4 sound discs (ca. 209 min.) : digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1, Dec. 23, 1974 (ca. 61 min.). Anna Youskevitch speaks with Marilyn Hunt about her early ballet training in Rome, Italy, and her first performances; Bronislava Nijinska, including as a teacher; Ida Rubinstein as a dancer and actor; her impressions of other choreographers including [Leonide] Massine; more on Nijinska including her working method; the Russian opera [in Paris]; Mikhail Fokine at the time he was choreographing for Ida Rubinstein's ballet company; very briefly, meeting her husband, Igor Youskevitch in [Léon] Woizikowski's company; touring with a friend as the Tina [?] Sisters; how she came to join Woizikowski's company; Woizikowski as a person and as a dancer; roles she danced with Woizikowski; her husband including as a dancer; joining the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and her experience there [ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 2].
• Disc 2, Dec. 23, 1974 (ca. 30 min.). Anna Youskevitch continues to speak with Marilyn Hunt about the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo including her impression of Leonide Massine as a choreographer and as a dancer; Sergei Denham as director of the company; more on her experiences with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo including touring and performing for film; briefly, Sol Hurok and his wife [ends abruptly].
• Disc 3, Jan. 6, 1975 (ca. 60 min.). Anna Youskevitch speaks with Marilyn Hunt about her family including her mother's aristocratic background; the impact of the Russian Revolution, and emigrating to Italy with her mother and brother; the impact of World War II on her and her family; her reasons for resigning from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; more on her husband, Igor Youskevitch, in particular his military service; more on Ida Rubinstein's company; Frederick Ashton including an anecdote about him and her mother; her first stage name, Vladimirova; changing her name "Scarpa" to "Scarpova" for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; Alexandra Fedorova-Fokine, including her staging of The nutcracker for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo [in 1940]; briefly, rehearsing Agnes de Mille's ballet Rodeo; some of her roles; briefly, Massine's Labyrinth; more on her husband [ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 4].
• Disc 4 (ca. 58 min.), Jan. 6, 1975 (tracks 1-6) and Feb. 21, 1975 (tracks 7-12). Anna Youskevitch continues to speak with Marilyn Hunt about her husband, Igor Youskevitch, including her role as his artistic adviser and his relationship with the other dancers and with Massine; briefly, his partner Alicia Alonso; his personality; some of his roles, his influence on other dancers, and his partnering [short break at end of track 6 followed by beginning of Feb. 21, 1975 session]; her experiences as a teacher, including her teaching and choreographing for children; dancers today; dance critics; her daughter Maria, a dancer at [American] Ballet Theatre; her husband's company Ballet Romantique; a famous icon held by her family.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project
• Dance Audio Archive

Subjects

• Youskevitch, Igor, 1912-1994
• Audiotapes > Youskevitch, A
• Massine, Leonide, 1896-1979
• Youskevitch, Anna Scarpova
• Woizikowski, Léon
• Youskevitch, Maria
• Nijinska, Bronislava, 1891-1972
• Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

Note

• Interview with Anna Youskevitch conducted by Marilyn Hunt on Dec. 23, 1974 and Jan. 6, Feb. 21, 1975 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City as part of its Oral History Project.
• Sound quality is fair in discs 1-2 and good in discs 3-4. There is some distortion in the recording, especially in discs 1-2, and Anna Youskevitch's voice is sometimes soft, but the voices are almost always intelligible.

Funding (note)

• Preservation was funded in part by National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-663

OCLC

81545454

Author

Youskevitch, Anna Scarpova. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Anna Youskevitch [sound recording].

Imprint

1974-75.

Original Version

Original format : 2 sound reels (ca. 209 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 5"; polyester, 2 channels, half track). Originally recorded in 1974-1975.

Funding

Preservation was funded in part by National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

Local Note

For transcript of the audio recording, see *MGZMT 5-663.

Archive original: *MGZTO 5-663 no. 1-2 Restored and rehoused following water damage in 2015.

Added Author

Hunt, Marilyn, 1937- Interviewee

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-663