Research Catalog

Title

Lectures at Ohio State University [sound recording] / by Marcia B. Siegel.

Author

Marcia B. Siegel.

Publication

1973.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Wilson, Robert, 1941-
• Ohio State University.

Description

7 sound cassettes (492 min.)

Summary

• Cassette 1, Apr. 3-4 [?], 1973 (ca. 68 min.). [Cassette 1, side A has the same content and sound quality as cassette 6, side B and cassette 7, side A. The recording is marred by background noise, but the discussion is largely intelligible. The movement session includes almost no speech.] Discussion of George Gelles as a dance and music critic; the concept of style in dance; the relationship between self-scrutiny and confusion and the rise of electronic media; style as a largely unconscious phenomenon in art and life; the value of becoming aware of one's own style; Viola Farber's response on the previous evening to a question about her style; Paul Taylor's style; style compared with movement pattern; stylistic identity; discussion of audience response to the previous evening's performance by Farber's company; Farber's unwillingness to explain this response; an audience's need for meaning; style as meaning; possible explanations for the emotions evoked by Farber's work; discussion of Farber's performance in terms of Laban movement analysis; the use of space in choreography by Farber, Alvin Ailey, and Paul Taylor; other elements in Farber's work including focus and momentum; audience response to the length and intensity of her work [gap]; the polarization of dancers in Farber's work; her use of weight; Siegel leads the class in a flow exercise to illustrate points about weight and flow in Farber's work [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 1 cont., Apr. 3-4 [?], 1973. More on movement qualities in Farber's work; Twyla Tharp's use of flow; her evolution as a choreographer; Siegel leads the class in a movement session [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 2, Apr. 4-5 [?], 1973 (ca. 87 min). [The recording is marred by noise and is distorted. Except for the movement session, side A is difficult to understand, but phrases can be made out. Side B improves about 10 minutes into the recording, especially the movement session.] Siegel compares Western and non-Western works; leads the class in an improvisation exercise about flow, isolations, movement initiation, and weight [gap]; discussion of Farber [gap]; attitudes toward space; directness of movement and use of arm isolations in Tharp's work; the sense of opening and closing bodies in Farber's work compared to that of Tharp's; Tharp's sensuality compared with Farber's intellectualism; Farber as a Merce Cunningham dancer; Farber's and Cunningham's deliberate breakup of flow in choreography, in contrast to that of Tharp's, which uses constant motion.
• Cassette 2 cont., Apr. 4-5 [?], 1973. Tharp's indifference to spatial design; the clarity and logic of the dynamics in her work Deuce coupe; the difficulty for the audience of perceiving dynamics as compared to shape; Tharp's use of a fugue structure in Deuce coupe; Deuce coupe as a dance about music [gap]; Tharp's rhythmic organization; Tharp compared with other jazz choreographers; her use of weight and rebound [gap]; movement session led by Siegel about approaching a partner and exploring focus and space; discussion of students' experience in the exercise, including the meaning of having an attitude toward space; Siegel asks students for questions about style; the benefits and challenges of being aware of one's own style; the development and codification of style [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 3, Apr. 5 [?], 1973 (ca. 77 min.). [The recording is marred by noise and is completely unintelligible for stretches as long as five minutes.] Siegel discusses style and the creative process; compares the Romantic idea of artistic inspiration with the idea of a creative routine (citing George Balanchine as an example of the latter); Jerome Robbins' creative process and choreographic style; compares Robbins' and Balanchine's approaches to music; discussion of realism in dance; Farber as a realist choreographer; realism in dance versus realism in the theater; pedestrian movement and realism; description of a work by Laura Dean; explanation of Dean's goals as a choreographer [gap]; unidentified man [probably Robert Wilson] speaks [recording is unintelligible]; music from a performance by Wilson [gap]; unidentified man [Wilson?] leads the class in a movement exercise [gap]; Siegel discusses various avant-garde dance movement styles; Cunningham's influence and Wilson's contribution; Wilson's interest in performers living, not acting; his careful work and craftsmanship; Wilson's elaborate, detailed sets and theatrical environment; his concern with the use of time; his interest in theatricality [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 3 cont., Apr. 5 [?], 1973. Pedestrian movement in choreography as a response to the rigidities of technique; Trisha Brown's use of imagery that expands beyond the pedestrian but remains related to it; technique as language; its tendency to create distance from the audience; Siegel's belief that after a period of focus on non-dance the current trend is back to theatricality, symbolism, and stylization; more on Wilson's process, his free-flow of ideas, the unusual dynamics of his theater, citing several examples from his work. [Unidentified music followed by largely unintelligible speech that seems to be the beginning of a discussion on space and architecture.]
• Cassette 4, Apr. 10-13, 1973 (ca. 90 min.). Siegel discusses cubism in dance; compares twentieth century choreographic innovations with Pablo Picasso's art and contrasts it with the aesthetics of classical ballet; Leonide Massine's Parade (as revived by the Joffrey Ballet) as a forerunner of Cunningham's choreography; cubism as the disassociation and rearrangement of time and space; Martha Graham as not strictly cubist because of her primary concern with psychological states; Siegel leads the class in a movement exercise about space [gap]; discussion about space; dancers' ability to make the audience experience space differently; repeat of the exercise [gap]; further discussion.
• Cassette 4 cont., Apr. 11[?], 1973. Siegel gives the class a statement-and-response-type exercise with instructions regarding the use of weight [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 4 cont., Apr. 13, 1973. [The recording is marred by noise and is sometimes unintelligible, particularly side A.] Siegel leads the class in a discussion about Cunningham and Farber; the challenges of learning someone else's movement; reasons for differences and similarities between Farber and Cunningham; the tendency of dancers to pick up movement structure before expressiveness; Valda [Setterfield] and Meg [Harper] as examples of expressive Cunningham dancers; the depersonalization that occurs when a dancer takes on someone else's movement and style; differentiating between personality, style, choreography, and mannerisms; compares Cunningham with his younger dancers; Cunningham's qualities as a solo dancer; differences between Cunningham's and Farber's companies; their use of movement tailored to individual dancers; the impersonal nature of Farber's work; Cunningham's use of contact and interaction; compares Cunningham and Farber's use of groups, focus, time, space, weight, verticality, and shapes; Cunningham's solo in his work Landrover [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 5, Apr. 13, 1973 (ca. 90 min.). [Side A is distorted but largely intelligible. Side B is unintelligible.] Discussion of Landrover continued from cassette 4, including Cunningham's use of falls and hand gestures; his lack of concern with shape or bodily articulation; Cunningham's Events; the selection of material for an Event; the use of material from Cunningham's work Signals in an Event; use of several possible endings in Signals; Cunningham's works Canfield, Changing steps, and Borst Park as Event material; Siegel's discomfort with the indeterminacy of Events and works like Changing steps; Cunningham's preference for large, open performance spaces over traditional theaters; Cunningham's increasing use of weight and various types of falls; Landrover as an example of Cunningham's artistic maturity; the evolution of Cunningham's choreography and company in the 1960's; the relevance of style to student-choreographers in the class; style in relation to technique [gap]; choosing a vocabulary to describe dance; relationship between the body/physical reality and the mind/abstraction in perceiving and understanding dance; discovering one's own style [ends abruptly].
• Cassette 6, Apr. 3, 1973 (ca. 50 min.). [Side A is difficult to understand and ends after approximately 20 minutes. There is additional material on side B. Side B also duplicates material on cassette 1, side A, and is of comparable sound quality.] Siegel lectures about ways of looking at and evaluating choreography, including in terms of Laban movement analysis, speed, focus, and phrase complexity; history and goals of the movement analysis system, choreometrics; Siegel's definition of style; Siegel conducts an exercise regarding the description of movement in terms of space, effort, phrasing, etc. [gap; duplication of material on side A of cassette 1 beginning with the discussion of George Gelles].
• Cassette 7, Apr. 3 [?], 1973 (ca. 30 min.). [Duplication of material on side A of cassette 1 beginning with the discussion of Farber's performance in terms of Laban movement analysis. The sound quality is also comparable.] Excerpt of a rehearsal by Robert Wilson, consisting of several unidentified musical recordings with occasional commentary.

Donor/Sponsor

• Oral History Archive.
• New York State Council on the Arts, 2000-2001.
• Gift of Marcia B. Siegel.

Subject

• Gelles, George
• Farber, Viola
• Taylor, Paul, 1930-2018
• Tharp, Twyla
• Setterfield, Valda
• Harper, Meg
• Dean, Laura, 1945-
• Brown, Trisha, 1936-2017
• Cunningham, Merce
• Wilson, Robert, 1941-
• Deuce coupe (Choreographic work : Tharp)
• Parade (Choreographic work : Massine)
• Landrover (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
• Event (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
• Cubism > Influence

Note

• Classes conducted by Marcia B. Siegel at Ohio State University during Apr. 3-Apr. 13, 1973. Robert Wilson participates in one or more of the classes, as described in the summaries of cassettes 3 and 7 below.
• Cassette copies only of this series were given to the Library. The cassette copies were recorded out of chronological order, and the Library does not have the original recordings. The chronological order of the recordings is as follows: the first class begins on cassette 5B (which is unintelligible); the classes continue on cassettes 6A, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, and 5A (the final class). The material on 6B and 7A duplicates material on 1A except that that 7A also contains the recording of a rehearsal led by Robert Wilson, which is mainly music. The sound quality of the recordings is frequently poor or unintelligible; a note regarding the sound quality of each cassette is included with its summary, below.

Funding (note)

• Preservation was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, 2000-2001.

Call Number

*MGZTC 3-2273

OCLC

NYPY05-R10011

Author

Marcia B. Siegel. Speaker

Title

Lectures at Ohio State University [sound recording] / by Marcia B. Siegel.

Imprint

1973.

Funding

Preservation was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, 2000-2001.

Local Note

Archive original: *MGZTCO 3-2273 nos. 1-7

Dubbing master: *MGZTD 10-2273 nos. 1-11.

A single page of typewritten notes regarding the order in which the cassettes should be played, with dates and summaries, apparently authored by Robert Wilson, has been cataloged as a transcript under the call numbers: *MGZMTO 3-2273 (archival transcript) and *MGZMT 3-2273 (user transcript).

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Local Subject

Movement analysis -- Systems -- Laban movement analysis.

Movement analysis -- Systems -- Choriometrics.

Audiotapes -- Siegel, M.

Added Author

Wilson, Robert, 1941- speaker.

Ohio State University.

Research Call Number

*MGZTC 3-2273