Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Robert Cohan [sound recording].

Author

Cohan, Robert.

Publication

1972.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• McDonagh, Don.
• Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Description

3 sound discs (ca. 76 min.) : digital, stereo; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 32 min.). Robert Cohan speaks with Don McDonagh about attending early ballet performances while he was in the military; growing up Brooklyn, N.Y.; being stationed in England, and attending ballet and theater there, and hearing about Martha Graham; awareness of wanting to be a modern dancer after his first dance class with Graham; seeing Merce Cunningham and Graham dance, and being intrigued by the movement; joining Graham's company in 1946; the closeness of Graham to the male dancers after Erick Hawkins left the company; Graham's direction and choreography; Graham's company classes; touring in Paris and London in 1950; opinion of Hawkins' choreography; Graham's knee injury; Graham and Hawkins' relationship; Yuriko's choreography with the Graham company; being more involved with teaching dance than choreography; Graham's encouragement of his choreography, and an early piece they choreographed together; 1955-1956 Asian tour; Tokyo and visiting the Kabuki; difficulty in rehearsal periods, practicing seven days a week, and the fact that the dancers were largely unpaid; Bethsabee de Rothschild's involvement in the company.
• Disc 2 (ca. 30 min.). Robert Cohan continues to speak with Don McDonagh about Bethsabee de Rothschild, and meeting her for the first time, indicating that he and most others did not realize she was wealthy; Graham's social life as separate from the dance company; Graham becoming more social after the company moved to the 63rd street studio; sanding the floors of the new studio with Stuart Hodes, and tending the garden in the back of the studio; Louis Horst and Helen Lanfer's piano duties; Lanfer's devotion to Graham; Horst and his role in the company, including the fact that Horst's role began to diminish after Hawkins arrived; Horst's classes and the impact they had; Graham's teaching and dance techniques; Graham's early years, schooling and dancing for Denishawn [sound is compromised by recording outdoors].
• Disc 3 (ca. 14 min.). Robert Cohan speaks with Don McDonagh about arguing with Martha Graham, mostly about management issues within the company; cancelled tours and problems with the company; breaking from the Graham company; teaching classes and beginning to choreograph his own dances; dancing with Matt Turney, and larger groups of mostly former Graham dancers; using his own money to fund his own studio and performances after leaving Graham; briefly returning to Graham's company after the staging of Clytemnestra; touring with the company in late 1950s; Graham's problems with alcohol abuse [abrupt end].

Subjects

• Horst, Louis > Influence
• Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance
• Cohan, Robert > Interviews
• Graham, Martha
• Martha Graham Dance Company
• Dance company tours

Note

• Each disc ends abruptly.
• Interview with Robert Cohan conducted by Don McDonagh on March 20, 1972.
• Open as of August 22, 2012.

Funding (note)

• Recording was preserved through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Source (note)

• Don McDonagh;

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2530

OCLC

262558529

Author

Cohan, Robert. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Robert Cohan [sound recording].

Imprint

1972.

Funding

Recording was preserved through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Local Note

Archive orig. : *MGZTCO 3-2530, nos. 1-2

Dubbing master : *MGZTD 4-2530, nos. 1-3

Source

Gift; Don McDonagh; 2007

Local Subject

Dance company tours.

Added Author

McDonagh, Don. Interviewer

McDonagh, Don. Donor

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2530 sound disc