Research Catalog

Title

Agnes de Mille talks about Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham.

Author

De Mille, Agnes

Publication

[between 1974 and 1991]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

2 sound discs (approximately 24 minutes): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (approximately 21 minutes). Agnese de Mille summarizes her notes (while adding her own comments as appropriate), dated May 31, 1974, of three talks with Anna Sokolow: De Mille recounts Sokolow's family background; her school days and her dance classes at the Henry Street Neighborhood Playhouse; her meeting Martha Graham and Louis Horst; her taking class with Louis Horst, who chose her to be his assistant; her first exposure to classical music composers like Bach and Tchaikovsky and to modern music composers like Gershwin; being a part of Graham's original group of dancers; her and the other students' living conditions; meeting her future husband, Alex North; the idolizing of Graham by her students; Graham's apparent indifference to her students' lives outside of her studio; Sokolow's developing of her own work, using jazz music, despite Graham's disapproval; Graham as a dancer; the costumes, which the students sewed by hand; the unbecoming hair styles and clothes the students were required to wear; Sokolow's studying with other teachers; dancing in Mexico with José Limón and others; the favorable reception their performances received and her subsequent frequent visits to Mexico; her visit to Israel with Jerome Robbins to see the dance group Inbal; Graham's and Horst's terrible quarrels; Graham's antisemitism and pride in being the descendant of a passenger on the Mayflower; Bethsabée [de Rothschild]'s transferring of her interest from Sokolow to Graham; Graham's continuing bitterness toward Sokolow including her attempt to prevent her from receiving funding.
• Disc 2 (approximately three minutes). Agnes de Mille continues to summarize her notes (while adding her own comments as appropriate) dated May 31, 1974, of three talks with Anna Sokolow: De Mille begins by quoting José Limón about Graham; De Mille describes, based on an account given by John Martin, the alleged confrontation between [Michel] Fokine and Martha Graham at a public lecture at the New School for Social Research as well as Sokolow's statement that the incident did not happen; Horst's and Graham's comments to Sokolow on Sokolow's admiration for George Balanchine's ballet Concurrence as well as Horst's comment on the same ballet to De Mille.

Subjects

• Graham, Martha
• Sokolow, Anna
• Fokine, Michel, 1880-1942
• New York (N.Y.) > Henry Street Playhouse
• Audiotapes > De Mille, A
• De Mille, Agnes
• North, Alex
• Horst, Louis
• Dancers > Economic conditions

Note

• Agnes de Mille summarizes her notes from three talks with Anna Sokolow (who refused to be recorded); this is part of her research for her biography of Martha Graham entitled Martha: the life and work of Martha Graham (1991). The date of the notes is May 31, 1974; the time and place of the recording is not known except that one can surmise the recording must have been made between 1974 and 1991, the year of Martha's publication.
• Sound quality is good overall. From approximately 18:15 into disc 1 through the end of disc 1 (approximately three minutes) the recording is marred at times by "tape hiss.". Both disc 1 and disc 2 are also marred by occasional short gaps. However, De Mille's voice is always easily intelligible.
• Title supplied by cataloger.

Funding (note)

• The conservation 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

*MGZTL 4-1638

OCLC

35217049

Author

De Mille, Agnes.

Title

Agnes de Mille talks about Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham.

Production

[between 1974 and 1991]

Type of Content

spoken word

Type of Medium

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

Event

Recorded by Agnes de Mille [between 1974 and1991]

Funding

The conservation 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 cassette (approximately 24 minutes); 1 7/8 ips., originally recorded in 1974; transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2013.

Added Author

De Mille, Agnes. Martha.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-1638