Research Catalog
Interview with Moira Shearer.
- Title
- Interview with Moira Shearer.
- Author
- Shearer, Moira, 1926-2006.
- Publication
- 1976, 1978.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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4 Items
Status | Container | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Part 1 | Moving image | Supervised use | *MGZMT 3-431 Part 1 | Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance |
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Part 2 | Moving image | Supervised use | *MGZMT 3-431 Part 2 | Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance |
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Part 3 | Moving image | Supervised use | *MGZMT 3-431 Part 3 | Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance |
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Part 4 | Moving image | Supervised use | *MGZMT 3-431 Part 4 | Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Harris, Dale, 1928-1996.
- Description
- 1 v. (267 l.)
- Summary
- 08/29/1976. Pages 1-38. Moira Shearer speaks about her early dance training, in Africa and in London at Nicholas Legat’s school; the Russian style of ballet she had learned compared with the Italian style of the Sadler’s Wells Company [Sadler’s Wells Ballet]; Violetta Evin; Ninette de Valois, including the manner in which she directed the Company; Shearer’s difficulties with De Valois, especially after Shearer appeared in the film The red shoes; the Company’s U.S. tour in 1949; more on De Valois’s direction of the Company, including her attempt to impose a uniform style on the dancers; Robert Helpmann; De Valois as a teacher; Frederick Ashton, including his working methods; more on the Italian style of ballet; classes with other teachers including Ailne (Babs) Phillips and Nicholas Sergeyev; her brief period with the International Ballet Company, including her thoughts on Mona Inglesby; Shearer’s distinctive hair and skin color as the cause of difficulties with certain roles and costumes; her debut as Aurora at Covent Garden.
- Pages 39-81. Moira Shearer speaks about her conversation with [Tamara] Karsavina regarding the Giselle’s mad scene; the circumstances of her joining the International Ballet Company and subsequently the Sadler’s Wells Company; her first roles at the Company; Beryl Grey; more on De Valois’s direction of the Company, including the effect of her favoritism on morale; Pauline Clayden; the reasons Shearer left the Company; dancing in Ashton’s Palace of pride [Act III of the ballet The quest]; more on Ashton’s working methods; dancing the role of Cinderella in Ashton’s ballet Cinderella; her partners, including Robert Helpmann; reasons Anton Dolin was a good partner for Alicia Markova; dancing in [Leonide] Massine’s ballets, including Tricorne [Three-cornered hat] and Boutique fantasque; anecdotes about rehearsing Boutique fantasque with Massine as a partner and his working methods; the film The red shoes, including the experience of seeing oneself on film; De Valois’s role in Shearer’s agreeing to be in the film.
- 08/31/1978 and 09/01/1978. Pages 81-103. Moira Shearer speaks further about Ninette de Valois; the relative lack of feed-back regarding one’s dramatic effectiveness; the management of the Sadler’s Wells Company, past and present; more on the Russian style of dancing, past and present, including Shearer’s thoughts on Anna Pavlova; dancers who can submerge their personality when dancing, e.g., Margot Fonteyn, compared to dancers who emphasize their individuality, e.g., Pavlova and Shearer.
- Pages 103 -126. Dancing in Roland Petit’s ballet Carmen; Frederick Ashton and Margot Fonteyn; Fonteyn’s difficulty with George Balanchine’s Ballet imperial; rehearsing Ballet imperial with Balanchine, including an anecdote concerning his comment on The red shoes; De Valois’s ballets, including The prospect before us and Job; more on rehearsing Ballet imperial with Balanchine; the costumes for Ballet imperial.
- Pages 126-151. Moira Shearer speaks about Ninette de Valois’s desire for the Company to maintain a British character; reminisces about various Russian dancers she saw in the years before World War II, including André Eglevsky and Nicholas Legat [break]; the making of The red shoes, including the various difficulties filming presented for the dancers; Robert Helpmann’s choreography and Alan Carter’s role in matching the music to the dancing on film; dancing in The red shoes as compared with dancing in Hoffmann [The tales of Hoffmann, 1951, directed by Michael Powell]; her feelings upon seeing the The red shoes, both before and after editing; more on the circumstances of how she came to be in the film; dancing in Leonide Massine’s ballet Angot [Mademoiselle Angot ] at Covent Garden while still working on The red shoes; Massine’s ballet The clock symphony.
- Pages 152-176. Moira Shearer speaks about her acting in The red shoes; the film The story of three loves; briefly, regarding Michael Powell and Max Reinhardt as directors; other films in which she appeared, including The man who loved redheads; dancing as a guest with the Sadler’s Wells Company; Frederick Ashton’s ballet Cinderella, including the circumstances of his choreographing substantially all of it on her rather than Margot Fonteyn; the differences in their costumes; his working methods; Alexander Grant in the role of the Jester; Michael Somes as a partner, in particular in Cinderella; her frequent partner, David Paltenghi; performing at the Metropolitan Opera House during the Company’s 1949 U.S. tour, including her thoughts on the Bluebird role.
- Pages 177-202. Moira Shearer continues to speak about the Company’s 1949 U.S. tour; audience response, in the U.S and in London, including an anecdote concerning her entrance in Act I of The sleeping beauty, in London; Company morale; reasons there was resentment toward her when she substituted for Fonteyn in Cinderella; performances given in Europe during World War II; more on her experience dancing in Roland Petit’s Carmen.
- Pages 203-224. Moira Shearer speaks about dance on film, including films of Anna Pavlova, [Olga] Spessitvtzeva, Fonteyn and Nureyev in Romeo and Juliet, and Frederick Ashton’s ballet, A month in the country; films in which she danced, including The red shoes, Tales of Hoffmann, and The story of three loves; conductors, recorded music, and tempi, including an anecdote about Robert Irving; Constant Lambert, as a conductor.
- Pages 225-246. Moira Shearer speaks about Margot Fonteyn, including Constant Lambert’s influence on Fonteyn’s career; Shearer’s friendship with Fonteyn, including an anecdote about Fonteyn’s desire to sing; Shearer’s feelings about her own career, including her dissatisfaction with the narrowness of the world most dancers inhabit; reasons she ended her career as a dancer; an anecdote Leonide Massine told her about Arnold Haskell and Serge Diaghilev; her lectures on ballet.
- Pages 247-265. Moira Shearer speaks about the people she regards as the great innovators in the history of ballet; Marie Rambert’s feelings about Isadora Duncan; Shearer’s concept of the perfect [ballet] dancer; Beryl Grey and the Ashton ballet The quest; playing the role of Sally Bowles in John Van Druten’s play I am a camera; acting in the ballets Swan lake and Giselle; dancing in Giselle, in particular, in Act II; her first major roles; her dislike of the role of Swanilda and the ballet Coppélia.
- Alternative Title
- Dance Oral History Project.
- Dance Audio Archive.
- Subjects
- Dance in motion pictures, television, etc
- Inglesby, Mona, 1918-
- Ballet in motion pictures > Tales of Hoffmann
- Massine, Leonide, 1896-1979
- Sergeev, Nikolaĭ Grigorʹevich, 1876-1951
- Sadler's Wells Ballet
- Helpmann, Robert, Sir, 1909-1986
- Legat, Nikolaĭ Gustavovich, 1869-1937
- Fonteyn, Margot, 1919-1991
- Elvin, Violetta Prokhorova
- Ballet imperial (Choreographic work : Ashton)
- Quest (Choreographic work : Balanchine)
- Balanchine, George
- De Valois, Ninette, 1898-2001
- Ballet in motion pictures > The red shoes
- Shearer, Moira
- Note
- Typescript.
- Transcript of interview conducted by Dale Harris, recorded on Aug 29, 1976 and Aug 31, and Sept 1, 1978.
- Access (note)
- Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
- Processing Action (note)
- Cataloged
- Call Number
- *MGZMT 3-431
- OCLC
- NYPY797076746-A
- Author
- Shearer, Moira, 1926-2006. Interviewee
- Title
- Interview with Moira Shearer.
- Imprint
- 1976, 1978.
- Local Note
- The transcript was substantially edited as is evident from handwritten revisions. The revisions are believed to have been made primarily by the oral author, Moira Shearer.
- Restricted Access
- Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
- Local Subject
- Ballet in motion pictures. The red shoes.Ballet in motion pictures. Tales of Hoffmann.
- Added Author
- Harris, Dale, 1928-1996. Interviewer
- Research Call Number
- *MGZMT 3-431