Research Catalog

[Interview with Bessie Schönberg]

Title
[Interview with Bessie Schönberg] [videorecording]
Publication
1995.

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Moving imageUse in library *MGZIC 9-5113Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors
  • Schönberg, Bessie.
  • Owen, Norton.
  • Kopp, Leslie Hansen.
  • DHCA.
Description
4 videocassettes (U-matic, NTSC) (187 min.) : sd., col.; 3/4 in.
Summary
Interview intended as an addendum to the oral history by Rose Ann Thom, 1977. Bessie Schönberg looks back upon the years following her retirement from Sarah Lawrence College, particularly the individuals and organizations she has worked with as a teacher of choreographic workshops and composition classes, an artistic adviser, and a mentor.
Donor/Sponsor
Gift of Jacob's Pillow.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Interviews.
  • Dance.
  • Video.
Note
  • Title from information provided by donor.
Performer (note)
  • Interviewer: Norton Owen.
  • Interviewee: Bessie Schönberg.
Event (note)
  • Videotaped at Jacob's Pillow, Lee, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1995, by Leslie Kopp.
Contents
  • Cassette 1 (ca. 48 min.). Bessie Schönberg discusses her husband Dmitri, who died in 1984, paying tribute to the lessons in craftsmanship he taught her through his avocations of pottery and gardening. She discusses in detail the composition workshops she taught at Dance Theatre of Harlem at the invitation of Karel Shook, and at Dance Theater Workshop under the leadership first of Jeff Duncan and later of David White.
  • Cassette 2 (ca. 57 min.). Schönberg talks about the composition workshop she began at Jacob's Pillow School of the Dance under Liz Thompson's directorship, and the contributions of her accompanist Gary Sojkowski and her colleague Charles Wright. She recalls Bonnie Bird, with whom she danced in the Martha Graham Dance Company, and who invited her to teach at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London, and Robin Howard, founder of The Place in London, where she also taught composition classes.
  • Cassette 3 (ca. 62 min.). Schönberg discusses her role as artistic adviser to various choreographic projects at The Yard in Chilmark, Massachusetts, under the direction of Pat Nanon. After touching upon her current classes in the dance department of the Juilliard School, which she was asked to teach by Benjamin Harkarvy, she describes a choreographic program for recent graduates at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She recalls her first meeting with Elise Bernhardt of Dancing in the Streets/USA, and her involvement in Grand Central dances, which Bernhardt organized at Grand Central Station in New York in 1987. Schönberg also discusses serving as artistic adviser to choreographers participating in Dances at Wave Hill, and as mentor to the young choreographer Diane Coburn Bruning.
  • Cassette 4 (ca. 20 min.). Schönberg continues her discussion of Diane Coburn Bruning and the ballet she created for Joffrey II. She discusses a few of the many workshops she has presented outside of New York, notably at Temple University, in Boston, and with David Shimotakahara's group New Steps in Akron.
Call Number
*MGZIC 9-5113
OCLC
NYPY97-F21
Title
[Interview with Bessie Schönberg] [videorecording]
Imprint
1995.
Country of Producing Entity
U.S.
Performer
Interviewer: Norton Owen.
Interviewee: Bessie Schönberg.
Event
Videotaped at Jacob's Pillow, Lee, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1995, by Leslie Kopp.
Local Subject
Choreographic workshops.
Performance spaces.
Open air performances -- United States.
Site-specific performance.
Added Author
Schönberg, Bessie. Interviewee
Owen, Norton. Interviewer
Kopp, Leslie Hansen. Videographer
DHCA.
Research Call Number
*MGZIC 9-5113
View in Legacy Catalog