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Interview with Rudy Perez

Title: Interview with Rudy Perez, 2019
Author: Perez, Rudy
Publication: 2019

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Status	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.	Audio	Supervised use	*MGZMT 3-3481	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors

Mey, Cassie

Description

5 streaming files (approximately 3 hr. and 35 min.) : digital +

Summary

Streaming file 1, February 5, 2019 (approximately 29 minutes). Rudy Perez speaks with Cassie Mey about his childhood, in the Bronx (N.Y.), in particular the trauma of his mother's death from tuberculosis when he was 7, and his own hospitalization with tuberculosis; (briefly) his step-father and the schools he attended including the School of Performing Arts; leaving school and home when he was 15; his natural affinity for dance; starting dance lessons at the New Dance Group in the late 1940s; his view then and now of dance as a hobby in the sense that he has always been independent; his teacher Mary Anthony and her classes; how he came to work in an office (which freed him from restaurant work); taking class for 5 years in the 1950s at Martha Graham's studio [Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance] [recording paused; continued on streaming file 2].
Streaming file 2, February 5, 2019 (approximately 23 minutes). Rudy Perez speaks with Cassie Mey about how he looked different than the other (mainly blond) male dancers in his classes at the New Dance Center and Martha Graham's school; his teacher Mary Anthony comparing him to José Limón and Bertram Ross; working at (non-dance-related) jobs and attending dance class as his daily routine; being invited to the special classes at Graham's school; how, through his meeting Elaine Summers at the Living Dance Center, he came to be involved with Judson Dance Theater; (briefly) performing in Summer's work Fantastic gardens; his involvement with Judson Poets' Theater; his solo in a play [based on the short-story cycle] Winesburg, Ohio at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Bob [Robert Ellis] Dunn as an influential teacher and inspiration for Perez's work, Take your alligator with you; the greater femininity brought by subsequent dancers to this work; the work's reception by the audience and critics including Clive Barnes; his contributing to productions [at Judson Dance Theater] in various capacities; (briefly) working with Robert Rauschenberg [recording paused; continues on streaming file 3].
Streaming file 3, February 5, 2019 (approximately 41 minutes). Rudy Perez speaks with Cassie Mey about Marian Chace and her workshops in dance therapy; how this led to his work at Bellevue [Hospital; now NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue]; his other activities at this time including working with children at Adelphi University; meeting Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn; his solos; his work Countdown; his time at Dance Theater Workshop and some of the people he knew there including Jeff Duncan, Art Bauman and Deborah Jowitt; his relationship with the Clark Center [for the Performing Arts] and the Cubiculo [Theatre]; how he came to dance with Barbara Roan and Anthony La Giglia, including in Loading zone and Rerun plus; Barbara Roan's and Anthony La Giglia's memorable performance of Take your alligator with you; being invited in 1968 to become the resident artist in dance at Marymount [Manhattan] College; his 10 years there including his general shift from creating mainly site-specific works to creating works for the College's proscenium theater; taking part in the American Dance Festival, in 1970-1972, and Charles Reinhart's support for his work; some of the other artists who participated in the Festival during this three year-period including Paul Taylor and Bella Lewitzky; his use of a drum-and-bugle corps in his work; more on his time at Marymount College; briefly, a shared evening at Barnard College with Charles Weidman in 1971; touring in the United States on a National Endowment for the Arts grant during his residency at Marymount College; his use of sounds including Julia Child's voice in his work Bang, bang; his frequent use of poles and chairs in his work including Tracers, the first work he created in Los Angeles (Calif.); eventually leaving Marymount College for California, initially for a position at UCLA [University of California, at Los Angeles].
Streaming file 4, February 6, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 31 minutes). Rudy Perez speaks with Cassie Mey about various events that occurred in his professional life around 1970 including his inclusion in Don McDonagh's book The rise and fall and rise of modern dance (1970); his appearance on The Today Show including an anecdote about Merce Cunningham; his work on camera entitled District One; his avoidance of political content in his work; the personal significance for him of being able to choreograph; his work Running board for a narrative; his choreography as a response to a work's original venue; his work Colorado ramble including the origin of the title; how the Alvin Ailey company [Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater] came to perform his work Countdown; how Countdown is different when performed by women; performing with Erin Martin at Marymount College; his reasons for dedicating his work Systems to Yvonne Rainer; his friendship with dance critics from the Judson Memorial Theater period including Clive Barnes and George Jackson; his Men's Coalition Company including his conceiving it as an homage to Ted Shawn; (briefly) his choreographic process including the influence of the visual arts on how he uses space; (briefly) Al Carmines; his audience during his 15 years in New York and the positive role of the critics who wrote about his work; how his professional life changed after moving to California in 1978; the dance world he found in the Los Angeles area; (briefly) his work Meridian pass; his hands-off approach to collaborations with other artists; the municipally-funded program Dance Kaleidoscope, at the John Anson Ford Theatre [The Ford]; (briefly) his work Red ice; his "hi-tech folk dance" Cheap imitation including its reconstruction by Tamsin Carlson; (briefly) the Art Moves workshop; his Sunday workshops at the Westside Academy of Dance [in Santa Monica]; his work Canopy at an intersection, at MOCA [Museum of Contemporary Art, in Los Angeles]; gallery pieces including his work Triangles red and how it differed when performed in a theater; [Robert] Rauschenberg and his non static art works; the influence generally of the visual arts on his work; why he typically prefers that his work be performed live than be filmed his current practicing of qigong; reminiscences of the L.A. [Los Angeles] Arts Festival of 1984; works performed at the Festival in subsequent years including Twice and Equal time; his participation in a recent performance of Merce Cunningham's work [Split sides] at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; reason he thinks Cunningham's work presents such a challenge for performers.
Streaming file 5, February 7, 2019 (approximately 31 minutes). Rudy Perez speaks with Cassie Mey about seeking out dance artists, including Carmelita Maracci, and institutions when he first moved to the Los Angeles area; an anecdote about Elyssa Paternoster and Take your alligator with you; his 1992 work Dance-crazy kid from New Jersey meets Hofmannsthal; beginning in 1992, teaching and creating works at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts; his eschewal of superficial pleasantries; his performance of Countdown at a revival of Judson Dance Theater works at Lincoln Center, in New York; his student company Kite Tails including his then-student and assistant Victor Quijadar; his association with USC [University of Southern California], which holds his archives, and with the California School of the Arts; how he feels about documenting his life and work including this oral history. [Interview ends.]

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.
Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

Genre/Form

Sound recordings.
Oral histories.

Note

Interview with Rudy Perez conducted by Cassie Mey on February 5, 6, and 7, 2019, at Rudy Perez's home in Los Angeles (Calif.), for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3481
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 on site only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Sound quality is excellent.
Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Available on site only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Funding (note)

The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3481

OCLC

1262656847

Author

Perez, Rudy, Interviewee.

Title

Interview with Rudy Perez, 2019

Imprint

2019

Playing Time

033500

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.

Available on site only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Event

Recorded for for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2019, February 5, 6, and 7 Los Angeles (Calif.).

Funding

The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Connect to:

Added Author

Mey, Cassie, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3481

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