Research Catalog

Title

Interview with George Balanchine. Summer, 1978 [sound recording].

Author

Balanchine, George.

Publication

1978.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Cott, Jonathan.
• Oral history archive.

Description

3 sound discs (ca. 109 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 47 min.). Jonathan Cott interviews George Balanchine about his choreography and Igor Stravinsky's music; Balanchine speaks about the inadequacy of verbal explanations with respect to music; the close relationship between music and dance; his ballet Midsummer night's dream, in particular the significance of the character Bottom in the original play by Shakespeare; dancers as the fish in the aquarium of music; his working method as similar to Stravinsky's method of building of chords, including his eschewing of formulas; the value to him even of his weaker works; his work Vienna waltzes; European rather than Russian culture as the basis of his, Stravinsky's, and Vladimir Nabokov's early education; his dance Stravinsky violin concerto, including the intended significance of a particular gesture; Stravinsky's Symphony in three movements; what the audience wants to see [ends abruptly].
• Disc 2 (ca. 48 min.). Jonathan Cott continues to interview George Balanchine about his choreography; Balanchine describes his primary choreographic aims; music he considers impossible to choreograph to, including Igor Stravinsky's works Rite of spring and Les noces [Svadebka]; more on his working methods, including choreographing to Anton Webern and his (Balanchine's) use of canonic forms and conterpoint in movement; the concept of reverse time sense; what he needs to know (on an abstract level) in order to choreograph a work satisfactory to him; the critic Clive Barnes; the reason he focuses on the here and now; more on the concept of reverse time sense; stories and music that should not be choreographed, in particular Alexander Pushkin's poem Eugene Onegin; Johannes Brahms; (very briefly) Twyla Tharp; his view that "ballet is woman" and ballet that does not center on women as mere "men's dance", e.g., as in Maurice Béjart's works; the dearth of young choreographers [ends abruptly].
• Disc 3 (ca. 14 min.). Jonathan Cott continues to interview George Balanchine about music and choreography; Balanchine speaks about how he sees the training of dancers as the foundation to become a choreographer; the tempo in the works Agon and Apollon [Apollo], in particular how they have been speeded up since Stravinsky and Balanchine's original collaboration; images evoked by Anton Webern's music; Cott reads a passage about the Hindu god Shiva that he relates to experiencing Balanchine's choreography; Balanchine speaks about the Victoria regia lily as a choreographic metaphor [ends abruptly].

Subject

• Balanchine, George
• Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971
• Midsummer night's dream (Choreographic work : Balanchine)
• Music and dance
• Audiotapes > Balanchine, G

Note

• Interview with George Balanchine conducted by Jonathan Cott in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in summer, 1978. The interview appears to be taking place at a theater, possibly during a rehearsal. A substantial part of this interview was transcribed and included in the book Portrait of Mr. B : photographs of George Balanchine (Viking Press, 1984).
• Sound quality is good overall. The speakers' voices are always easily intelligible but there is an extraneous hiss and occasional extraneous noise. Music, possibly from a rehearsal, can be heard in much of the recording.

System Details (note)

• Transferred from 2 sound cassettes (ca. 109 min.; originally recorded in 1978) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2011.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2685

OCLC

706138021

Author

Balanchine, George. Interviewee

Title

Interview with George Balanchine. Summer, 1978 [sound recording].

Imprint

1978.

System Details

Transferred from 2 sound cassettes (ca. 109 min.; originally recorded in 1978) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2011.

Local Note

The audio recording of an additional interview with George Balanchine conducted by Jonathan Cott, in 1982, is cataloged in the Oral History Archive as *MGZTL 4-2684.

Archive original: *MGZTCO 3-2685

Added Author

Cott, Jonathan. Interviewer

Oral history archive.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2685