Research Catalog

Interview with Remy Charlip

Title
Interview with Remy Charlip, 1983-05-04.
Author
Charlip, Remy
Publication
May 4, 1983.

Available Online

NYPL Digital Collections

Details

Additional Authors
  • Vaughan, David, 1924-
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
Found In
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Description
1 streaming audio file (31 minutes) : digital, stereo
Summary
Remy Charlip speaks with David Vaughan about his inspirations for starting to dance while an art student at Cooper Union, including the influence of a fellow student, Marianne Benjamin; briefly, seeing the New York City Ballet perform Merce Cunningham's Seasons (1947); he lists his first dance teachers; he mentions a piece he choreographed during his senior year at Cooper Union; briefly, his first performance in Merce [Cunningham's] Rag-time parade (1950) at the Cooper Union Hall; his fellowship at Reed College in 1949 including meeting Lou Harrison and Bonnie Bird there, and making sets and costumes; they list the works that Charlip worked on while at Reed; Charlip speaks about living in New York with Harrison and meeting Cunningham and John Cage socially; being inspired from seing a performance of Cunningham's Monkey dances (1948); Charlip speaks about studying dance with Jean Erdman and lists some of the other students in her classes; they list the other dancers in Rag-time parade; they speak about Charlip's summer at Black Mountain College in 1948 and the performance there of Occupe-toi d'Brunhilde [a musical farce based on Occupe-toi d'Amélie]; Charlip speaks about an Easter party at his previous loft that included informal performances, especially parodies of Kabuki theater and a tea ceremony by Cage and "Nick" [Nicola] Cernovich; Charlip speaks about Cernovich showing his own movies at Black Mountain and later doing the lighting design for Cunningham; Charlip speaks briefly about making the program for Cage's premiere of Sonatas and interludes (1948), as well as his making a cyc [cyclorama] for Cunningham's performances in the Black Mountain cafeteria; more on printing the program for Sonatas and interludes on cigarette rolling paper; Charlip speaks about his costumes for Springweather and people (1955); [brief phone interruption]; Charlip speaks about the mask and costumes he created for Minutiae (1954); Charlip recalls that he helped Cunningham on the thrift shop costumes for Rag-time parade; Charlip tells an anecdote on painting the costumes for Sixteen dances for soloist and a company of three (1951); more on Cunningham's ideas about costumes; ends abruptly.
Alternative Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Interviews.
  • Sound recordings.
Note
  • David Vaughan interviews Remy Charlip in New York, New York, on May 4, 1983. This interview was created as research for David Vaughan's book, Merce Cunningham: Fifty years (New York, Aperture).
  • Title, location and date provided by cataloger based on audition and handwritten note on original container and cassette.
  • Handwritten note on original cassette and container: "David Vaughan: Interview with Remy Charlip ; New York ; 5 May 1983".
  • Sound quality is mostly good; at times the interviewee speaks away from the microphone and is low but mostly audible.
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
*LTC-A 1442
OCLC
913959457
Author
Charlip, Remy, interviewee.
Title
Interview with Remy Charlip, 1983-05-04.
Production
May 4, 1983.
Playing Time
003123
Type of Content
spoken word
Type of Medium
audio
Type of Carrier
audiocassette
online resource
Digital File Characteristics
audio file
Event
Recorded in, New York, New York, 1983 May 4 [although the cassette is labeled May 5, the interviewer states May 4th in the beginning of the interview].
Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
Original Version
Archival original: (1 audio cassette (31 minutes) : analog) in *LTC-A 1442.
Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Local Note
Transferred from original analog cassette by George Blood Audio on March 25, 2015.
Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
Connect to:
NYPL Digital Collections
Added Author
Vaughan, David, 1924- interviewer.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Research Call Number
*LTC-A 1442
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