Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Gus Solomons [sound recording].

Author

Solomons, Gus, Jr., 1938-2023

Publication

1970.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• McDonagh, Don.
• Joseph and Ida Liskin Foundation. fnd

Description

2 sound discs (ca.100 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 58 min.). Gus Solomons speaks with Don McDonagh about his early work Etching of a man; the German influence on much of the dance he saw as a student in Boston; his work Rag caprices; Elizabeth Keen and Studio Nine, including their relationship with Helen Tamiris; Tamiris's choreography as propaganda; his views on dance as propaganda; his work Fogrum, including the reasons Cliff Keuter had difficulty performing in it; Solomons' work Fast; his belief that dance is the motion and not the position; Merce Cunningham, including his admiration for Cunningham as a dancer; dancing in Cunningham's company [Merce Cunningham Dance Company]; Viola Farber as a dancer; more on Cunningham's company, both as a dancer in the company and as a spectator; Solomon's views on the role of lighting and other production elements, including the performance venue; his use of lighting that is independent of the choreography, including the effect on the audience; his choice of titles related to the work's imagery; his work Christmas piece, including his costume; his work Ecce homo; his work Construction II and the related works Construction 1 and Construction 1 1/2, which were performed on the WNBC Boston television program Exploring; his goals for himself as a dancer; his teacher, Jan Veen and the Boston Conservatory of Music, including various dancers who had studied there. [Ends abruptly.]
• Disc 2 (ca. 42 min.). Gus Solomons continues to speak with Don McDonagh about dancers who studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music; his very busy schedule when a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while also dancing and studying dance; meeting Donald McKayle through the Dance Circle of Boston and dancing for him immediately after graduation; Solomons' work Two reeler; his work Notebook; his work Draft alteration; his work We don't know only how much time we have...; various characteristics of his choreography including the relationship between the division of floor space and motion, his use of spontaneity, and his use of the same structures with different dancers, different spaces, and improvisation to achieve different versions; his work Obligato 69 [brief gap]; his work Neon; his work Kinesia for women and related works, including Kinesia for five and Kinesia for women and a man; these works as a response to Merce Cunningham's work Crises; Solomons' work Phreaque (spelled at least five ways by Solomons himself); Scenes along the mind's road (performed only once, in Rockport, Mass.); reasons he would like to form his own company; the role of machines in dance.

Donor/Sponsor

Oral history archive.

Subjects

• Merce Cunningham Dance Company
• Audiotapes > Solomons, G
• Cunningham, Merce
• Solomons, Gus, jr, 1940-

Note

• Interview with Gus Solomons conduted by Don McDonagh on March 11, 1970, in New York City.
• Sound quality is good overall. There is a brief gap near the end of track 6 on disc 1 and in track 6 on disc 2.
• Open as of August 22, 2012.

Funding (note)

• Preservation was funded in part with a gift from the Joseph and Ida Liskin Foundation.

Source (note)

• McDonagh, Don.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2503

OCLC

277412734

Author

Solomons, Gus, Jr., 1938-2023 interviewee.

Title

Interview with Gus Solomons [sound recording].

Imprint

1970.

Funding

Preservation was funded in part with a gift from the Joseph and Ida Liskin Foundation.

Local Note

Dubbing master: *MGZTD 4-2503 nos. 1-2

Archive original: *MGZTCO 3-2503 nos. 1-2

Source

Gift; McDonagh, Don. NN-PD

Local Subject

Audiotapes -- Solomons, G.

Added Author

McDonagh, Don. Interviewer

Joseph and Ida Liskin Foundation. Funder

McDonagh, Don. Donor

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2503 [sound disc]