Research Catalog

Interview with Sandra Rivera

Title: Interview with Sandra Rivera, 2019/ Conducted by Kiri Avelar on November 20 and December 5 and 12, 2019 in New York (N.Y.); Producer: Dance Oral History Project
Author: Rivera, Sandra
Publication: 2019

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections Dance to submit a request in person.	Audio	Supervised use	*MGZMT 3-3492	Performing Arts Research Collections Dance

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Additional Authors

Avelar, Kiri

Description

Online resource (3 streaming files [approximately 5 hrs.]) : digital +

Summary

Streaming file 1, November 20, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes). Sandra Rivera speaks with Kiri Avelar about her childhood in East Harlem (El Barrio) in New York City including the influence of her fourth grade teacher Elisa Belpré Maduro; her early exposure to dance at community parties and Mexican and Spanish movie musicals; her first dance classes, at the Institute of Culture of the Americas with Roque Cruz Gomez; performing at Carnegie Hall with other students from the Institute; her time (from about age 12) at the Tina Ramirez School of Spanish Dance [now the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance] including her first impressions of the school and of Tina Ramirez; some of the many Spanish dances she learned there including the pasodoble and the farruca; also taking ballet classes during this period with Alfredo Corvino; Tina Ramirez's move from the Ed Sullivan studios [on Broadway between 53rd and 54th streets] to West 33rd Street [later, to West 89th Street]; the founding of Ballet Hispánico [of New York; in 1970] by Tina Ramirez; how Rivera felt as a founding member of the company; the social and political context at the time, in particular the very active civil rights and cultural movements in the Black and Latin communities; her teaching children in El Barrio as a means to instill pride in their culture; her first professional affiliation, in 1968, as a member of Puerto Rico Canta; studying with José Molina and Mariano Parra at Fazil's [Times Square Studio]; taking class at Alvin Ailey's dance school [Ailey School] including ballet class with Barbara Cole; (briefly) working with Paco Fernández; (briefly) Luis Montero as a teacher; performing with Ballet Hispánico at the Delacorte Dance Festival in 1973 including a work on the Day of the Dead by Julie Arenal; Anna Sokolow and her work Caprichos; how training with and dancing for Tina Ramirez gave her a feeling of stability and of empowerment; names some of the other dancers who trained with Tina Ramirez; pride in Puerto Rican and Latin culture as a significant motivation for the parents enrolling their children in Tina Ramirez's school; her parents' support for her performing career; a typical day at Ballet Hispánico (during the period when she was in high school); some of the guest artists including Charles Moore and Lee Theodore Becker; the repertory at this time including an anecdote about Tina Ramirez performing a jota in the rain; the company's first tour, in Texas in 1975, and her excitement at seeing Mexican culture firsthand; Jose Coronado and his choreography for the company including his Fiesta en Vera Cruz and his Deer dance; the audiences including the interaction (offstage) between them and the dancers; the impact of the AIDS crisis on the company, in particular, the death of her frequent partner Lorenzo Maldonado and of the ballet teacher Ramon Segara; some of Maldonado's roles with the company; leaving Ballet Hispánico (for the first time) in 1982; working with Julie Arenal as a choreographer and teaching; what she missed about being in Ballet Hispánico, in particular her pride in being part of a showcase for Puerto Rican and Latin culture; the company's tour to France in 1978; reflections on her time at Ballet Hispánico, in particular the devotion and hard work of Tina Ramirez and the dancers and the company's transition to a more stable status.
Streaming file 2, December 5, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 51 minutes). Sandra Rivera speaks with Kiri Avelar about the impact on her of seeing dances by Martha Graham and José Limón on film at the Library [The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]; working with guest artists at Ballet Hispánico including Talley Beatty, Donald McKayle, Lois Bewley, Paco Fernández, and Julie Arenal; the different techniques required for their respective work; Tina Ramirez's sense of theatricality and her ability to evoke this quality in her dancers; her reasons for leaving the company (in 1982); (briefly) her work with Julie Arenal and study of flamenco with José Molina and Mariano Parra; her reservations about studying flamenco at a time when Puerto Ricans were affirming their African roots; the impact of seeing work that was free of Spanish influence created by other Latin artists, including Rudy Perez; her desire, inspired by Anna Sokolow, to create and dance more personally relevant work; her return to Ballet Hispánico (in 1984); after her return, working with Vicente Nebrada, [Ralph] Lemon, and Roberto Lorca; Lorca's work Sacromonte, which is set to music by Joaquín Turina; (briefly) Anna Sokolow and her influence on Rivera's own choreography and approach to teaching; Tina Ramirez's work Group portrait of Carmen [Portrait of Carmen] leaving Ballet Hispánico for the second time, in 1986; her questioning of certain aspects of Catholicism including the role of women; working with Carla de Sola and the Omega Liturgical Dance Company as artists in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; the Reverend James [Parks] Morton and his hosting of artistic and political activities at the Cathedral; how performances of the Company at the Cathedral were incorporated into the church's liturgical seasons; the annual service celebrating Saint Francis [Feast of Saint Francis and Blessing of the Animals], including how the Omega Liturgical Dance Company participated in the service; the political and social aspects of the Company's performances, for example, with respect to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the AIDS crisis; how working with the Company helped Rivera to develop as a choreographer; her use of castanets in her choreography; the relationship of dance to the liturgy, the Spanish musical form saeta, and her work originally entitled Oración de lagrimas, which memorializes the horrors of the Bosnian War [1992-1995]; her solo, [En Espíritu:] St. Teresa of Avila [later performed as part of Saeta: Passiontide], her flamenco work Flamenco mystico, comprised of solo and group parts; performing this work (at the Cathedral) in October 2001; subsequent performances at other venues; her 2008 work Los seises, commissioned by and performed at the Cathedral on Epiphany [January 6]; its conception as an homage and response to a type of 14th century Spanish liturgical dance; in 1997, beginning to work (with sponsorship from the Museo del Barrio among others) with children at schools in El Barrio including her creation of the work Barrio angel; over the next two years continuing to work in this community with children and other age groups; her 50-dancer ensemble work Aguinaldo, a Puerto Rican celebration, in particular, how its themes relate to her own family history, rehearsing the work including the challenges of working with such a large group; her joy and pride in being back in El Barrio as a performer and educator; her work Barrio girl, including its conception as a reflection of that joy and pride; other themes and images from her childhood reflected in this work, in particular her experiences as a dance student; the poet Julia de Burgos and Rivera's work Path of the artist; her related work, Zemi; her return to El Barrio as completing a circle begun when she a child.
Streaming file 3, December 12, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes). Sandra Rivera speaks with Kiri Avelar about Rudy Perez's work Convergence, in particular how his use of text has influenced her work; other experiences that influenced a pasodoble-based work she choreographed, including reading about Bill T. Jones' work Floating the tongue, and hearing students sing lyrics disparaging Puerto Rico (in the song "America" in the musical West Side Story); reasons she used text and castanets in this work; (briefly) her series Compás; her recent series La respuesta: a dance action and its relation to social and political issues affecting the Latinx population; what she hopes to achieve with Sandra Rivera Projects and Zemi Dance Theater including the documenting of Latinx dance artists; (briefly) Las Colectivas and Franchesca Cabrera; Naomi Goldberg Haas, Dance for a Variable Population, and Rivera's work Fuerza; her pleasure in reading John Martin's and Walter Terry's writings on dance; Rivera reads aloud a brief comment about Argentinita from Terry's book I was there [I was there: selected dance reviews and articles--1936-1976; by Walter Terry; compiled and edited by Andrew Mark Wentink; foreword by Anna Kisselgoff, 1978]; Rivera speaks about the impact on her of seeing Alan Lomax's [and Forrestine Paulay's 1974] documentary film Dance in human history; her return to Hunter College (to continue her education) and choreographing Flamenco study #1 as a class assignment; her work (part of her Compás series) Points of Origin (and the shifts that follow) including its conceptual origins; her reasons for returning to finish her baccalaureate degree, at CUNY [City University of New York], where she studied with David Capps and Jessica Nicholl; her concentration, Latino dance in the United States diaspora; her career as a dance educator, in particular, the influence of her fourth grade teacher Elisa Belpré Maduro and her experience with Tina Ramirez; her involvement (after leaving Ballet Hispánico in 1986), with ARTS [Arts Resources for Teachers & Students], a community arts education program active in the Chinatown area [of New York City]; working with the Primeros Pasos program and Josephine Irvine including the decision to emphasize performance; also teaching in schools in East Harlem at this time including an anecdote about a student; the Bailes del Pueblo program including its origins in a dance residency with Museo del Barrio; her work with students at the Webster School in Westchester, New York [Daniel Webster Elementary School?]; more on her work with ARTS; space and time as the biggest challenges of these school programs; some of the people who were instrumental in acquiring space for Ballet Hispánico on the Upper West Side, in particular Natsu Ikeda Ifill as well as Verdery Roosevelt; the effect of the move (from 33rd Street to 89th Street) on Ballet Hispánico and the school; Elisa Belpré Maduro as her mentor with respect to her teaching career; other mentors including Julie Arenal, Anna Sokolow, and Tally Beatty; Tina Ramirez's influence on her teaching; reasons she enjoys teaching; how she currently approaches teaching, in particular in the case of Spanish dance forms; her goal of evoking artistry in all of her students including her use of visual arts and literature to achieve this; Rivera reads aloud her closing remarks, about how she views her role in the dissemination of Latin culture and dance.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.
Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

Genre/Form

Sound recordings.
Oral histories.

Note

Interview with Sandra Rivera conducted by Kiri Avelar on November 20 and December 5 and 12, 2019 in New York (N.Y.) for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3492
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 except that in streaming file 3 (December 12, 2019), from approximately 20:30 to 40:00, the volume of Sandra Rivera's voice is significantly lower than in the rest of the recording.
Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

Available onsite only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
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 3-3492

OCLC

1295847634

Author

Rivera, Sandra, Interviewee.

Title

Interview with Sandra Rivera, 2019/ Conducted by Kiri Avelar on November 20 and December 5 and 12, 2019 in New York (N.Y.); Producer: Dance Oral History Project

Imprint

2019

Playing Time

050000

Type of Content

spoken word

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

audio

Type of Carrier

online resource

volume

Digital File Characteristics

audio file

Restricted Access

Available onsite only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

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, November 20 and December 5 and 12 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.

Connect to:

Added Author

Avelar, Kiri, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3492

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