Research Catalog

Interview with Muna Tseng

Title
Interview with Muna Tseng, 2018.
Author
Tseng, Muna
Publication
2018.

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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.

AudioSupervised use *MGZMT 3-3471Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors
Farlow, Lesley
Description
4 streaming files (approximately 5 hours and 15 minutes) : digital +
Summary
  • Streaming audio file 1, June 12, 2018 (approximately one hour and 38 minutes). Muna Tseng speaks with Lesley Farlow about her (extended) family and her childhood in Hong Kong including her education; emigrating to Vancouver, Canada in the 1960s; the impact of the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976] on life in Hong Kong; self-expression and happiness as Western values she was able to pursue due to her parents' move to Canada; their life in Vancouver; her discovery of modern dance; her teachers, Heather McCallum and Magda and Gertrude Hanova; her classes with Marcia Snyder at University of British Columbia; taking extra-curricular classes and workshops with various teachers including Albert Reid and Gladys Bailin; her first concert, at the Vancouver Art Gallery; Gerald Arpino's comments on her work and his offer of a scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet school; the influence on her of a Tai Chi master's comments on her choreography including her recent return to teaching Qigong; some of her collaborations with Janice LeBlond while at the University of British Columbia; after graduation, working as the director of the Vancouver Art Gallery; the impact of seeing Jean Erdman's Gauguin in Tahiti and attending Erdman's workshops, in Vancouver; moving to New York, in 1977 to pursue her dance training; her life in New York including an anecdote about how she reconnected with Erdman; performing at Erdman's and Joseph Campbell's Theater of the Open Eye, including in Erdman's work Twilight crane; joining Erdman's company and dancing in Erdman's work The shining house; performing in a revival of Erdman's work The transformations of Medusa; an anecdote about Erdman's reconstructing part of the work in a local diner; choreographing for the Holiday Dance Festivals at the Theater of the Open Eye.
  • Streaming audio file 2, June 12, 2018 (approximately one hour and 59 minutes). Muna Tseng speaks with Lesley Farlow about her water pieces, beginning with Water water, for the Holiday Dance Festivals at the Theater of the Open Eye; the conceptual origins of this work; its later evolution into the Water trilogy; Jean Erdman's Daughters of the lonesome isle with music by John Cage; an anecdote about Cage preparing the piano for this work; Joseph Campbell including his personal and artistic relationship with Erdman; dancing the role of Medusa in an ancient theater, in Athens; her collaboration on the opera The silver river with the composer Bright Sheng, the playwright David Henry Huang, and the director Ong Keng Sen; her concert at the 14th Street Y entitled Water trilogy including a new work Pond; rehearsing at KHDT [Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater]; shaving her head and binding her legs as part of her creative process for this concert; her solo Water mysteries and the duet Water mysteries II; her solo Post-revolutionary girl including its theme of foot-binding and the source of its title; her work The pink, based on the novel Jin Ping Mei [The plum in the golden vase; also known as The golden lotus] with music by the composer Tan Dun; its world premiere in Hong Kong in particular, the critical and public reaction to the work's nudity; the story behind her stage name Muna; an anecdote about Nanette Charisse; her creative process, in particular, her reliance on her instincts and finding of inspiration from various, sometimes random sources; her feeling that each new work is like a birth; her tendency to begin by choreographing on herself before working with other dancers; the death of her older brother [the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi] and its relation to her work on the 1991 Gulf War, entitled Shattered [Shattered, hymns for mortal creatures]; Ping Chong and his writing and directing of her in 98.6: a convergence in 15 minutes; the reasons she wanted to collaborate with Ping Chong on her full-length work on her brother, SlutForArt [SlutForArt aka ambiguous ambassador]; using interviews with friends and associates of her brother to reflect the zeitgeist of his milieu including the devastation wrought by AIDS; certain aspects of this work such as the use of video projections; her close relationship with her brother and their life in New York City; her brother's sickness and eventual death, from AIDS; more on SlutForArt including how each performance is both grueling and healing; her work Stella, which was intended as a portrait of her mother, including the role old clothes from her mother's closet played in the creative process; her mother's death including Tseng's subsequent epiphany regarding her relationship with her parents; being able to create Stella only after her mother had died.
  • Streaming audio file 3, June 13, 2018 (approximately 55 minutes). Muna Tseng speaks with Lesley Farlow about her work Stella, the second of her family portraits; the long creative process including her collaboration with Ong Keng Sen and how she used her mother's possessions to develop the work; the transition of the work from a solo (as developed in Singapore) to a work for four dancers, with Ong as the dramaturge and David Thomson as the main Stella character; the other cast members, Isadora Wolfe, Rebecca Warner, and Tseng, with Tseng as the oldest Stella character; her archive of her mother's possessions; her melding of life and art in her later, more mature works; the solo version of Stella as compared with her later, group version; her pick-up company, Muna Tseng Dance Projects; more on the process of creating Stella including some of Ong's specific directions and questions; Tseng reads aloud from reviews of Stella by the critics Ragnar Naess and Gia Kourlas; Tseng speaks about her work Grandfather (It's all true: grandfather) including her reasons for creating a work about her grandfather instead of her father; researching this work including the dearth of physical artifacts and documents from her grandfather's life; developing the work at a residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center with the help of Karen Shimakawa and others; the assembling of a fake history based on found digital images; how this work differs, emotionally, from SlutForArt and Stella; Tseng reads aloud Karen Shimakawa's comments on the work (then in-progress); more on specific aspects of the work; Grandfather as a lighter counterpoint to SlutForArt and Stella.
  • Streaming audio file 4, June 13, 2018 (approximately 43 minutes). Muna Tseng speaks with Lesley Farlow about touring in the United States and in foreign countries including an anecdote about performing the work Twilight crane (at the invitation of Foster Kelly Tucker) for Rosalind and Amy Carter; her experience at the International Arts Festival in Bihać [in Bosnia and Herzegovina]; performing with Rina Schenfeld in Israel including at the Karmiel [Dance] Festival; performing her work The pink at a festival in Tallinn, Estonia; touring in Japan with Junko Shimazaki, including her taking class with [the Butoh master] Kazuo Ono; an anecdote about Merce Cunningham personally thanking her for a small donation; the summer dance program at Queens College at Caumsett State Park (N.Y.), including an anecdote illustrating the unaffected graciousness of Trisha Brown; her work with the Current Practices subcommittee (of the Bessie Awards Committee); the subcommittee's nominating of the dramatic work This was the End (directed by Mallory Catlett); Tseng reads aloud from a short passage by Anthony Bourdain and explains its significance to her.
Alternative Title
  • Dance Oral History Project
  • Dance Audio Archive
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Sound recordings.
  • Oral histories.
Note
  • Interview with Muna Tseng conducted by Lesley Farlow on June 12 and 13, 2018, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York (N.Y.) for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project.
  • For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3471.
  • As of March 2023, the audio recording of this interview can be made available at the Library for the Performing Arts by advanced request to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, dance@nypl.org. The audio files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming.
  • Sound quality is excellent overall.
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
Access (note)
  • Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Funding (note)
  • The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.
Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3471
OCLC
1114307836
Author
Tseng, Muna, interviewee.
Title
Interview with Muna Tseng, 2018.
Imprint
2018.
Type of Content
spoken word
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
audio
Type of Carrier
online resource
volume
Digital File Characteristics
audio file
Restricted Access
Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Event
Recorded for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts June 12 and 13, 2018 New York (N.Y.)
Funding
The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.
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Added Author
Farlow, Lesley, interviewer.
Research Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3471
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