- Additional Authors
- Found In
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Description
- 1 streaming audio file (45 minutes) : digital, mono
- Summary
- Merce Cunningham speaks briefly about his early interest in dance; his interest in choreographic complexity; daily dance training; briefly, the intentions and expressions that inherently reside in movements; the impact of technology on narrative structures in dance; more on dance technique and training; his teaching methods in relation to his choreography; more on movement expression; the variety of techniques that modern dancers study; his interest in movement spontaneity; more on teaching dance; his interest in expanding the range of possibilities in movement; [recording gap]; more on his dance technique, movement tempos and technology; his definition of dance; briefly, the impact of television; chance mechanisms and methods to structure his choreography and juxtapose movements; briefly, the difficulties of working with these methods, especially for the dancers; the challenges and comedies of being a dancer within a dance company; the movement inspiration as a starting point for his dances; the cumulative effect of movements within a dance piece; the look of spontaneity in his dances and the methods he uses to achieve this, including performing in non-traditional spaces as in his Events; creating this sound recording at Theater an der Wien where he presented his first Event in 1964; the widening of interest in dance; synergy among the performance elements in his dance pieces; more on the performance elements and the audience's reactions to his pieces; his pre-performance announcement; his brief defenses of critiques, especially one regarding music; briefly, social and environmental concerns; his artistic practice that consists of questioning and then investigating; briefly, the mental and physical flexibility gained by being a dancer.
- Alternative Title
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Lectures.
- Note
- This recording seems to be a rehearsal of a lecture by Merce Cunningham about his choreography, to be given at an unspecified date and location.
- Title, location and date provided by cataloger based on audition and handwritten notes on original container. The relationship of the recording to the note "Montreal" is unidentified.
- Handwritten note on original container: "Montreal L/Dem - 44'20 ; VI/8/77 ; 7 1/2 ips".
- Recording quality is mostly good; at times, Cunningham's voice is soft. There are short silences and gaps throughout the recording.
- Access (note)
- Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Source (note)
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
- Linking Entry (note)
- Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Call Number
- *LT-7-A 2358
- OCLC
- 880587700
- Author
Cunningham, Merce, speaker.
- Title
Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography.
- Production
June 8, 1977.
- Playing Time
004436
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
audiotape reel
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Event
Recorded at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria, 1977 June 8.
- Original Version
Archival original: (1 audiotape reel (49 minutes) : analog, 7 1/2 ips, 2 track, mono ; 7 in.) in *LT-7-A 2358.
- Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Local Note
Transferred from original open tape reel by the New York Public Library's Audio and Moving Image Preservation (PAMI) sound engineering staff at the Library for the Performing Arts on January 22, 2014. To create the streaming file, the sound engineers edited out the recording silences in the preservation file, thus the discrepancies in length between the preservation file and the streaming file.
- Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Theater an der Wien.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
- Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Research Call Number
*LT-7-A 2358