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Martha Graham seminar at the Asia Society

Title: Martha Graham seminar at the Asia Society [sound recording].
Publication: 1988.

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Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 8	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 8	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 7	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 7	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 6	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 6	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 5	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 5	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 4	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 4	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 3	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 3	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 2	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 2	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 1	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-1240 disc 1	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.		Audio	Supervised use	*MGZMT 3-1240	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors

Description

8 sound discs (ca. 321 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in. +

Summary

Disc 1 (ca. 48 min.). Beate Gordon introduces the seminar, 60 years of Graham technique, and speaks about Martha Graham's illustrious career including her support of Asian artists; Francis Mason speaks about Graham as a great choreographer, teacher, and dancer; the nature of the current seminar and how it will be conducted; introduces the [first group of] speakers: Dorothy Bird, Anna Sokolow, Ailes Gilmour, Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Marie Marchowsky, Jane Dudley, and Lily Mehlman; Mason reads aloud Gertrude Shurr's reminiscences about Graham and Louis Horst including her first classes for adults and Shurr's description of the development and codification of Graham technique including her first use of contraction and release; Dorothy Bird speaks about her classes with Graham in Seattle, Wash. in which Graham worked out choreography for the dance interludes in the play Seven against Thebes [Bird has two dancers demonstrate aspects of what she learned in connection with the choreography for Seven against Thebes, accompanied by her comments]; Anna Sokolow reminsces about first meeting Graham and Horst and how revelatory their classes were. [Ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 2.]
Disc 2 (ca. 45 min.). Anna Sokolow concludes her remarks; Ailes Gilmour speaks, briefly, about her background and about taking classes with Martha Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse and joining her company [Martha Graham Dance Company] in 1929; working on Graham's works Heretic, Primitive mysteries, and Dark meadow; the many collaborations between her brother Isamu Noguchi, and Graham; their performances at Radio City Music Hall; [slides based on photographs taken by Barbara Morgan in 1938 are shown accompanied by Francis Mason's identification of the subjects]; [Elena Mannes reads aloud the reminiscences of her mother, Evelyn Sabin, about taking classes with Martha Graham]; Sophie Maslow reminisces about taking class with Graham; [students demonstrate movements Maslow had learned from Graham, accompanied by piano music and Maslow's comments]; Jean Erdman reminsces about her classes with Graham and other members of her company; joining the company and her first performance; Graham and the use of turn-out; Marie Marchowsky reminisces about classes with Graham and with Horst, and Graham technique; the effect of the introduction of men into the company.
Disc 3 (ca. 25 min.). Jane Dudley reminsces about Martha Graham and her early performances; Lily Mehlman speaks about Graham and Leonide Massine and Massine's Le sacre du printemps [The rite of spring]; Sophie Maslow speaks, briefly, about teaching Graham technique in Israel; [film excerpts made in 1934 and 1938 at Bennington College are shown with commentary by Dorothy Bird; short gap followed by a live performance of Graham's work Celebration accompanied by piano music].
Disc 4 (ca. 48 min.). Francis Mason introduces the afternoon session of the seminar and the speakers including Yuriko, Helen McGehee, Douglass Watson, Mark Ryder, Stuart Hodes, Ted Dalbotten, David Wood, and Pearl Lang; Yuriko reminisces about Martha Graham including first seeing Graham and her company perform as well as her first performances with the company; speaks about Graham technique including different kinds of contractions and various positions Graham required of her dancers; Helen McGehee speaks about dancing in Graham's company including certain aspects of the techniques employed for particular roles; Douglass Watson reminisces about his brief experience as a dancer in Graham's company and how Graham's technique has helped him as an actor including examples from the plays Antony and Cleopatra and Richard III; Mark Ryder reminisces about his experience as a dancer in Graham's company including his observations about falls being only to the left and the change over time in the female dancers' bodies; Stuart Hodes speaks about his experience as a dancer in Graham's company including his reading aloud his description, which he had written earlier, of an advanced class he took in 1947. [Ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 5.]
Disc 5 (ca. 49 min.). [Reiteration of last ca. 90 sec. of disc 4]; Ted Dalbotten tells several anecdotes arising from classes with Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse; David Wood speaks about Graham's choreography and male dancers primarily with reference to various specific works; Francis Mason introduces Pearl Lang; Lang speaks about Graham and Graham technique based on her experience as a dancer in Graham's company; [Lang has a dancer demonstrate four movements from Graham's Night journey while commenting on them; Terese Capucilli performs Jocasta's solo from Night journey accompanied by what sounds like recorded music; ends abruptly but continues directly on disc 6].
Disc 6 (ca. 18 min.). This disc consists of the music accompanying performances of works by Martha Graham as they are being danced at the seminar, in each case introduced and briefly commented on by Pearl Lang: the recording begins with a continuation of the music playing at the end of disc 5 as accompaniment to Night journey; Lang also introduces and comments on Graham's Diversion of angels; excerpts from both Night journey and Diversion of angels are performed to musical accompaniment.
Disc 7 (ca. 48 min.). Francis Mason introduces Diane Gray, director of the Martha Graham school [Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance]; Gray leads a class of students from the school who demonstrate various aspects of Graham technique, with piano accompaniment [gap]; Mason, as moderator, introduces the participants in the panel discussion: Thea Nerissa Barnes, Lyndon Branaugh, Christine Dakin, Peggy Lyman, Peter Sparling, Janet Eilber, Takako Asakawa, and Diane Gray; Mason states the first topic for discussion by the panel: Graham technique as a technique or system that is the equal in formality to the system of ballet technique. [Ends abruptly; discussion continues on disc 8.]
Disc 8 (ca. 40 min.). Continuation of the panel disusion of Graham's technique and ballet technique; Francis Mason states the second topic for discussion, which is then taken up by the panel: how roles were learned in the past and how they are learned now; Mason states a third topic, which is taken up by one of the panelists [Peter Sparling?], namely the use by choreographers on the panel of Graham technique in their work [end of panel discussion; short gap]; Mason speaks with a group of children at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance about their experience as students there and their response to the demonstrations at the seminar; [final ca. 13 min. of recording consists of a performance of an excerpt, Helios, from Graham's work Acts of light, to the accompaniment of what sounds like recorded music].

Subjects

Note

Sound quality overall is excellent overall.
Recording of a symposium on Martha Graham technique, entitled 60 years of Graham technique, held at the Asia Society in New York City on May 19, 1988 and moderated by Francis Mason. Speakers on the topic of Martha Graham and her technique included Beate Gordon, Dorothy Bird, Anna Sokolow, Ailes Gilmour, Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Marie Marchowsky, Jane Dudley, Lily Mehlman, Yuriko, Helen McGehee, Douglass Watson, Mark Ryder, Stuart Hodes, Ted Dalbotten, Pearl Lang, and David Wood; a panel discussion, moderated by Mason, was also held, in which Thea Nerissa Barnes, Lyndon Branaugh, Christine Dakin, Peggy Lyman, Peter Sparling, Janet Eilber, Takako Asakawa, and Diane Gray participated. In addition the remarks of Gertrude Shurr were read by Mason, and the remarks of Evelyn Sabin were read by her daughter, Elena Mannes. The recording includes the sounds of the performances and movement demonstrations held at the seminar as well as a discussion with young students at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.

Access (note)

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-1240

OCLC

778783978

Title

Martha Graham seminar at the Asia Society [sound recording].

Imprint

1988.

Original Version

Original format: five sound cassettes (ca. 321 min.; originally recorded in 1988). transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2011. The original recordings are the three 10" reels described in this record as "Additional archival originals: *MGZTO 10-1240 no. 1-3". However, the digital wav files were created using the five sound cassettes described as "Archival originals."

Local Note

For a partial, edited transcript of the recording, which includes the remarks of Beate Gordon, Gertrude Shurr, Dorothy Bird, Anna Sokolow, Lily Mehlman, Ailes Gilmour, Evelyn Sabin, Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Maria Marchowsky, Jane Dudley, Helen McGehee, Douglass Watson, Mark Ryder, David Wood, Takako Asakawas, and Peter Sparling as well as brief biographical sketches of all but Gordon, Asakawa, and Sparling, see: *MGZMT 3-1240. The transcript was not created by the Jerome Robbins Dance Division and may contain mistranscriptions and misspellings.

For a related book see Martha Graham: the evolution of her dance theory and training 1926-1991, compiled by Marian Horosko, c1991, cataloged under the call number *MGYB (Graham) 91-2183. An article about the seminar by Anna Kisselgoff was published in The New York Times on May 29, 1988.

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Added Author

Marchowsky, Marie, 1916-1997. Speaker

Dalbotten, Ted. Speaker

Lang, Pearl, 1921-2009. Speaker

Hodes, Stuart. Speaker

Ryder, Mark, 1921-2006. Speaker

McGehee, Helen. Speaker

Yuriko, 1920-2022, speaker.

Gordon, Beate. Speaker

Mason, Francis. Speaker

Shurr, Gertrude.

Sabin, Evelyn.

Sokolow, Anna, speaker.

Bird, Dorothy, 1912-1996. Speaker

Gilmour, Ailes. Speaker

Mannes, Elena. Speaker

Maslow, Sophie. Speaker

Erdman, Jean. Speaker

Dudley, Jane. Speaker

Watson, Douglass, 1921-1989. Speaker

Wood, David, 1925-2002. Speaker

Eilber, Janet. Speaker

Sparling, Peter. Speaker

Dakin, Christine. Speaker

Branaugh, Lyndon. Speaker

Lyman, Peggy. Speaker

Asakawa, Takako. Speaker

Barnes, Thea. Speaker

Gray, Diane, 1941- Speaker

Mehlman, Lily. Speaker

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-1240

*MGZMT 3-1240

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