Research Catalog

Interview with Pauline Koner

Title: Interview with Pauline Koner [sound recording].
Author: Koner, Pauline.
Publication: 1971.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

3 Items

Item details
Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Not available - Please for assistance.	reel 18	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTC 3-949 [sound cassette] reel 18	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Not available - Please for assistance.	reel 17	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTC 3-949 [sound cassette] reel 17	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	discs 1-2	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-949 no. 17-18 discs 1-2	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors

Description

2 sound discs (ca. 122 min.) : digital; (4 3/4 in.)

Summary

Disc 1 (ca. 62 min.). Pauline Koner speaks with Selma Jeanne Cohen about Doris Humphrey including working with her on Koner's solo Voice in the wilderness; how working with Humphrey altered the direction of Koner's choreographic thinking; her ability to draw out dancers' individual abilities; Letitia Ide as the dancer most like Humphrey as a dancer; José Limón including Humphrey's influence on him; how Humphrey helped her choreograph, including Koner's work Cassandra; Humphrey's metaphorical use of trees and branches when choreographing and how this influenced Koner; Humphrey's Story of mankind, including the set, the props, and Pauline [Lawrence] Limón's costumes; Limón's dislike of this work; performing with the José Limón Dance Company; the Company's European tour including the reasons for the audience's lack of enthusiasm for Humphrey's works; Koner's belief that the tour overall had an adverse effect on Humphrey; her ability to create simplicity in art; Jerome Robbins' work Dances at a gathering as embodying this principle [ends abruptly at ca. 3:40 min. into track 12].
Disc 2 (ca. 60 min.). [Recording begins ca. 1:30 min. into track 1.] Pauline Koner speaks with Selma Jeanne Cohen about Doris Humphrey including how she continued to work even during the last few months of her life on her choreography and her writing; her stoicism; the significance of her book on choreography [The art of making dances, c1959]; more on how Humphrey taught choreographic theory; her emotional reserve and formal manners; her reaction to Koner's criticism regarding a work; Humphrey's humanity as existing on a universal rather than a personal plane; speculation regarding her relationship with Charles Weidman; the one-sided nature of Koner's emotional involvement with Humphrey and José Limón; Humphrey's close relationship with her cat, Monahan [?]; Ruth Currier; Koner's and Humphrey's shared feelings about music; Humphrey's economic situation [ends abruptly].

Subjects

Note

Interview with Pauline Koner conducted by Selma Jeanne Cohen on June 18, 1971 in New York City. This interview was conducted as part of the research for the completion by Cohen of Humphrey's autobiography: Doris Humphrey: an artist first (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1972).
Sound quality ranges from good to fair. Koner's voice is almost always intelligible while Cohen's voice is very soft and frequently not intelligible. In addition there are occasional short gaps and extraneous noise.

Funding (note)

Preservation was funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, 2010-2011 and the National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

System Details (note)

Transferred from 2 sound cassettes (ca. 122 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 2 channels; originally recorded in 1971) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2010.

Source (note)

Selma Jeanne Cohen.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-949 no. 17-18

OCLC

83652497

Author

Koner, Pauline. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Pauline Koner [sound recording].

Imprint

1971.

Funding

Preservation was funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, 2010-2011 and the National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

System Details

Transferred from 2 sound cassettes (ca. 122 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 2 channels; originally recorded in 1971) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2010.

Local Note

Former call number: *MGZTC 3-949 no. 17-18

Former archival original: *MGZTCO 3-949 no. 17.

Source

Gift. Selma Jeanne Cohen.

Added Author

Cohen, Selma Jeanne, 1920-2005. Interviewer

Selma Jeanne Cohen. Donor

National Endowment for the Arts, 2010-2011.

New York State Council on the Arts, 2010-2011.

Oral history archive.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-949 no. 17-18

View in Legacy Catalog