Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Pauline Koner [sound recording].

Author

Koner, Pauline.

Publication

1975.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Conway, Peter, ǂd 1929 July 18-
• National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

Description

8 sound discs (ca. 398 min.) : digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1; 03/12/1975 (ca. 61 min.). Pauline Koner speaks with Peter Conway about her life and career including her classes with Michel Fokine; her realization that she did not want to dance on pointe; her dance improvisations when she was a child; her dance training before she studied with Fokine; her study of Spanish dancing; her fascination since childhood with anything Oriental; seeing Anna Pavlova dance; more on her early self-created solos; studying with Michio Ito at the Ballet Arts studio while continuing her higher education; joining Ito's company and touring; the eclectic nature of the company's programs; Ito's training including the Dalcroze method; Ito's work as her first exposure to Oriental dance; her lifelong tendency to find her own way, artistically; the problems with current performances of José Limón's The moor's pavane, in particular what she feels is a misguided interpretation of her former role, Emilia; motivation as necessary to her dancing [ends abruptly but resumes directly on disc 2].
• Disc 2, 03/12/1975 (ca. 37 min.). Pauline Koner continues to speak with Peter Conway about the necessity, for her, of motivation in dance; her role as steel in Edwin Strawbridge's ballet Pas d'acier; non-narrative or pure dance as contrasted to dance from which emotion is absent; her awaking to the possibilities of modern dance after seeing Mary Wigman and Harald Kreutzberg dance; more on touring with Michio Ito and his company; how she came to meet and dance with Yeichi Nimura; a unique type of movement she learned from Ito and Nimura; the sources for her ethnic dances; her solo concert tour in the Middle East in the early 1930s, including her improvisations; her research in Egypt regarding Bedouin and other ethnic dances; her approach to ethnic dance as focused on the style rather than the individual steps; her frequently being mistaken for a different ethnicity or nationality than her actual Russian-American heritage.
• Disc 3, 03/15/1975 (ca. 60 min.). Pauline Koner speaks with Peter Conway about her career after her return from the Middle East including briefly, dancing with Edwin Strawbridge and his pick-up company at Lewisohn Stadium; briefly, Strawbridge's background; her performance of a Spanish dance at Radio City Music Hall; her 1934 dance concert at the Little Theater in New York City and its focus on Middle Eastern-style dances, including Yemenite dances; her two summers at Green Mansions [a resort and its theater in New York's Adirondack Mountains]; dancing and teaching in the [former] Soviet Union and her many varied experiences there, including Soviet dancers she met, ethnic dances she saw, the trains and food, and the theater, including its political aspects [ends abruptly but resumes directly on disc 4].
• Disc 4, 03/15/1975 (ca. 41 min.). Pauline Koner continues to speak with Peter Conway about her trip to the former Soviet Union. including her unsuccessful attempt to return for a second tour; her 1939 New York City dance recital, including her interview with Earl Wilson, and her belief that it adversely influenced John Martin's review of her performance; the effect of the review on her career; her husband, Fritz Mahler; more on Martin and his review; some of the works performed at the recital including Among the ruins and Song in the slum; joining José Limón's company [José Limón Dance Company] as her new beginning; more on the 1939 dance recital, including her use of songs by George Gershwin and music by Trude Rittman; her Spanish style-inspired dances The tragic fiesta and Dances of yesterday; this recital as her first truly modern dance program; her costumes.
• Disc 5, 06/06/1975 (ca. 61 min.). Pauline Koner speaks with Peter Conway about her new work, Solitary songs, opus III [a third part to her work Solitary songs]; her professional activities following the 1939 dance recital, including her work in television with Kitty Doner; Doris Humphrey and the role she played in Koner's development as a choreographer, beginning with Koner's work Voice in the wilderness; the reasons Koner turned to Humphrey and Humphrey's working method; Humphrey's The story of mankind including how Koner came to dance in it with José Limón; her continuing to dance with Limón and his growing company [José Limón Dance Company], first, with Lucas Hoving, in La malinche and then in The moor's pavane; her choreographing of her own parts; Humphrey's role in the company and as Koner's artistic adviser; Humphrey's illness; Limón's work The visit [The visitation]; the film version of The moor's pavane; her favorite works from that period; a hopeful ending as characteristic of Humphrey's work, as in Ruins and visions [ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 6].
• Disc 6, 06/06/1975 (ca. 38 min.). Pauline Koner continues to speak with Peter Conway about Ruins and visions; briefly, José Limón and Lucas Hoving as dancers; her final duet with Limón, in their joint work Barren sceptre; leaving the José Limón Dance Company in 1960 after an injury; The farewell, her tribute to Doris Humphrey; more on leaving Limón's company; her feelings about performing; more on The farewell; her husband and mother as artistic advisers and her recent use of video recording to evaluate her work; her revivals of Concertino [Concertino in A major] and The shining dark; more on The farewell, including its role as a turning point in her choreography; the continuing validity of Humphrey's choreographic principles.
• Disc 7, 06/11/1975 (ca. 61 min.). Pauline Koner speaks with Peter Conway about her professional activities after leaving José Limón's company including her staging of her work Concertino in Chile; the distortion her works and roles have suffered in performance over the years; the role of Emilia in The moor's pavane including Sallie Wilson's interpretation; teaching modern dance in Italy; more on The farewell including its filming; her work La poème, created for the Alvin Ailey Company; her seven-month stay in Japan where she taught and staged works; accepting a position at the newly-established North Carolina School of the Arts and deciding to concentrate on solo works; her work Solitary songs [ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 8].
• Disc 8, 06/11/1975 (ca. 39 min.). Pauline Koner continues to speak with Peter Conway about her work Solitary songs; more on her return to solo works and performances; her work The shining dark; the very high level of dancers' technique today including why this sometimes adversely affects performance; her thoughts on everyday movement as dance [short break]; teaching at the North Carolina School of the Arts including her course on the elements of performing; her new work, Solitary songs opus III, the third movement of her work Solitary songs, which she set on her students at the School of the Arts; plans for future professional activities; her choreographic process and music.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subject

• Koner, Pauline
• Martin, John , 1893-1985
• Fokine, Michel, 1880-1942
• Humphrey, Doris, 1895-1958
• Limón, José
• Itō, Michio, 1893-1961
• José Limón Dance Company
• North Carolina School of the Arts
• Moor's pavane (Choreographic work : Limón)
• Solitary songs (Choreographic work : Koner)
• Farewell (Choreographic work : Koner)
• Shining dark (Choreographic work : Koner)
• Dance in motion pictures, television, etc
• Dance critics
• Music and dance
• Audiotapes > Koner, P

Note

• Interview with Pauline Koner conducted by Peter Conway on March 12 and 15, 1975 and on June 6 and 11, 1975, in her home in New York City, as part of the Oral History Project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• Sound quality is very good. There are occasional short breaks in the recording.

Funding (note)

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

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-355

OCLC

81670529

Author

Koner, Pauline. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Pauline Koner [sound recording].

Imprint

1975.

Original Version

Original format : 2 sound reels (ca. 398 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 5"; polyester, halftrack). Originally recorded in 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 5-355.

Archive original: *MGZTO 5-355 no. 1-2

Added Author

Conway, Peter, ǂd 1929 July 18- Interviewer

National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-355