- Additional Authors
- Kendall, Elizabeth, 1947-
- Description
- 3 streaming audio files (approximately 2 hours and 23 minutes): digital
- Summary
- Streaming audio file 1 (approximately 52 minutes). [Ambient conversation, primarily in French.] Rosella Hightower speaks with Elizabeth Kendall about her early dance training and teacher Dorothy Perkins; meeting Leonide Massine and auditioning for him; traveling by boat to Monte Carlo to join the (newly-formed) Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1938; her initial status as an understudy; Frederic Franklin's help and support; some of her first solo roles; the outbreak of World War II while the company was in Paris; making their way to New York and going on tour; some of her roles including in Massine's The New Yorker, Beau Danube, and Boutique fantasque; her relationship with Massine; the forming of Ballet Theatre [later American Ballet Theatre]; leaving the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and joining Ballet Theatre; the nascent company's six-month stay at Jacob's Pillow; Antony Tudor and his choreographic process [ends abruptly but continues directly on streaming audio file 2].
- Streaming audio file 2 (approximately 43 minutes). [The first approximate 20 seconds reiterates the final approximate 20 seconds of streaming audio file 1.] Rosella Hightower speaks with Elizabeth Kendall about her time at Ballet Theatre including works Michel Fokine created for the company; André Eglevsky including how he helped her develop her classical technique; Antony Tudor's Undertow; working with Tudor; the influence of the New York critics; her reasons for leaving Ballet Theatre; her first Giselle, with Anton Dolin; meeting the Marquis George de Cuevas and joining his new company [Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo; later the Ballet International de la Marquis de Cuevas; disbanded in 1962]; Bronislava Nijinska as a person and as a choreographer including her (inexplicable) antipathy to Jerome Robbins [ends abruptly but continues on streaming audio file 3].
- Streaming audio file 3 (approximately 49 minutes). [Begins abruptly.] Rosella Hightower speaks with Elizabeth Kendall about working with Bronislava Nijinska on her roles in Nijinska's Les biches and Brahams variations; her time with the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo; the Marquis Georges de Cuevas; John Taras' ballet Piège de lumière; Edward Caton's ballet Triptych; Nijinska's staging of HIghtower's parts in The sleeping beauty [Robert Helpmann after M. Petipa (from version by B. Nijinska and N. Sergeev)].
- Alternative Title
- Dance Oral History Project.
- Dance Audio Archive.
- Subjects
- Oral histories
- Sound recordings
- Hightower, Rosella > Interviews
- Brahms variations (Choreographic work : Nijinska)
- Piège de lumière (Choreographic work : Taras)
- Biches (Choreographic work : Nijinska)
- Nijinska, Bronislava, 1891-1972
- Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo
- Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
- Eglevsky, André
- American Ballet Theatre
- Tudor, Antony, 1908-1987
- Cuevas, George de, marquis, 1885-1961
- Massine, Leonide, 1896-1979
- Genre/Form
- Sound recordings.
- Oral histories.
- Note
- Interview with Rosella Hightower conducted by Elizabeth Kendall in April, 1975, in Cannes, France, for the Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York (N.Y.).
- For transcript of interview see: *MGZMT 3-1516.
- Title supplied by cataloger.
- Sound quality is fair to poor. The recording is marred by extraneous noise including "tape hiss." The extraneous noise is particularly loud and distracting in the first approximate 23 minutes of streaming file 2 as the speakers are apparently driving in a vehicle with open windows.
- Access (note)
- Access only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
- Funding (note)
- The processing and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part 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
- *MGZTO 5-1516
- OCLC
- 83693507
- Author
Hightower, Rosella, interviewee.
- Title
Interview with Rosella Hightower, 1975.
- Imprint
1975.
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Restricted Access
Access only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
- Event
Recorded by Elizabeth Kendall April 1975 Cannes (France)
- Funding
The processing and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part 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.
- Original Version
Original format: one sound reel (approximately 2 hours and 23 minutes); polyester;half-track; 1.875 ips; 5 in.; transferred to wav file and streaming file format in 2015: myd_mgzto51516_v01f01_sc, myd_mgzto51516_v01f02p01_sc, and myd_mgzto51516_v01f02p02_sc.
- Local Note
Former call number: *MGZTC 3-1516.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Kendall, Elizabeth, 1947- interviewer.
- Research Call Number
*MGZTO 5-1516