Research Catalog

Interview with Trinette Singleton

Title: Interview with Trinette Singleton, 2020/ Conducted remotely by Nicole Duffy Robertson on August 24 and 26 and September 1, and 4, 2020; Producer: the Dance Oral History Project
Author: Singleton, Trinette
Publication: 2020

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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.	Moving image	Supervised use	*MGZMT 3-3495	Performing Arts Research Collections Dance

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Additional Authors

Robertson, Nicole Duffy

Description

4 streaming video files (approximately 7 hrs. and 2 mins.) : sound, color. +

Summary

Streaming file 1, August 24, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 47 minutes). Trinette Singleton speaks with Nicole Duffy Robertson about the interview process; her family background and childhood in Beverly, Massachusetts, her mother Mary Winnifred and her father James [Singleton] and his dairy business; taking ballroom dance class with Harriet James when she was eight; seeing American Ballet Theatre perform in Boston (Massachusetts) and immediately deciding to become a ballerina; starting ballet class with Harriet James while continuing ballroom dance class and taking tap classes; attending four weeks of the Joffrey Ballet School summer session in New York City in 1960; Lillian Moore and her classes at the School including character class; (briefly) Rosa Sternov; attending the following summer, as an "advanced intermediate"; reminiscences of her first class with Mr. [Robert] Joffrey; after her third summer at the Joffrey Ballet School returning in September (1963) to enter the School; her parents' support of her decision to forgo college and pursue a career as a ballet dancer; an anecdote about her five-year high school reunion; Joffrey's break with [Rebekah] Harkness in early 1964 and his subsequent greater focus on the School and teaching; the School and the Joffrey Ballet's shared space (at 434 6th Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets) including the stories about the building's original use and its proximity to the Jefferson Market Prison; reminiscences of impromptu classes with Gerald Arpino; his arranging for her to receive a full scholarship; Arpino's informal creative sessions; some of his maxims about ballet; some of her other teachers and their classes: Perry Brunson, Meredith Bayless, and Edna McRae including anecdotes illustrating why she found McRae terrifying; class with Francoise Martinet; teaching her first class, as a substitute at the School; the accompanist Adam Pernell including how he helped her with her teaching and later contributed to her musical education; the overall high level of the pianists at the School including John Hancock and Mary Roark; more on Joffrey's classes including his individualized approach to the development of each dancer's technique; Joffrey's flexibility when staging his own choreography as compared with his faithful approach when reconstructing other choreographers' works; Arpino's constant revising of his choreography; her feeling that she was fortunate to have spent time working with Joffrey in the studio before he was drawn away from teaching by other concerns; the reconstituting of the Joffrey Ballet in January 1965 following Joffrey's receiving of a grant from the Ford Foundation [Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice]; reminiscences of the Joffrey School teacher Bill [William] Griffith; more on Brunson including his "elimination day" classes; Basil Thompson, another memorable teacher; the curriculum including the non-ballet classes and guest teachers in modern dance and mime.
Streaming file 2, August 26, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes). Trinette Singleton speaks with Nicole Duffy Robertson about the history of the Joffrey Ballet including its first incarnation in 1956, the break with Rebekah Harkness in 1964 and the reconstitution of the company in 1965; daily class with Joffrey as the serendipitous result of this hiatus between companies; traveling with Joffrey as a demonstrator for his master classes during the course of which he offered her a place in the new company; performing in early January 1965 in an industrial show choreographed by Arpino; beginning regular rehearsals of typically eight hours a day for the upcoming performance (and Company debut) at Jacob's Pillow [Dance Festival]; performing at the White House Festival of the Arts in June 1965 including an anecdote about Joffrey and his security clearance; (briefly) the Company debut at Jacob's Pillow; the Company's next performance, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park including a performance anecdote about Arpino's work Incubus; Joffrey's work Gamelan; more on Incubus; [Arpino's] ballet Sea shadow, including a rehearsal anecdote about Lisa [Bradley] and a performance anecdote about the last-minute substitution of a new score for the original music, by [Maurice] Ravel; more on Bradley; touring in upstate New York at colleges and universities during the summer of 1965 including the often less than optimal performance conditions; the Company's first season at and move to New York City Center [City Center of Music and Drama (New York, N. Y.)] in 1966; the change in name from Robert Joffrey Ballet to City Center Joffrey Ballet; Ruthanna Boris and her staging of Cakewalk on the Company; (briefly) Arpino's work Arcs and angels; his work The poppet including its poor critical reception; other works from this period that disappeared from the repertory including [Marc Wilde's] The mannequins and [Lew Christensen's] Distractions; a performance anecdote about Arpino's Cello concerto; more on Cakewalk; the Company's five-week bus and truck tour in the eastern United States, including the racism encountered by the Company's African American dancers; the diversity in the body types of the Company members, which suited its diverse repertoire; Joffrey's ballet Astarte (in which Singleton danced the title role) including its long gestation period and Joffrey's secretiveness about it; Singleton's and Max [Maximiliano Zomosa]'s sudden return from a 1967 West coast tour to perform in a film of Astarte, directed by Gardner Compton with Emile Ardolino as his assistant [the film was projected on the rear stage wall as a backdrop to the live performance of Astarte]; some of the challenging and surprising aspects of Astarte that were revealed to Singleton as rehearsals progressed; the premiere at City Center including anecdotes about her mother's reaction to her performance (as Astarte) and Bradley's behavior to her at the opening night party; (briefly) Max's suicide and its aftermath including his replacement in Astarte by Dermot Burke and the pain of having to watch Max on film; Clive Barnes and his first and second impressions of Astarte as reflected in his reviews; the historical significance of Astarte; her sense that Joffrey had been nervous as to how Astarte would be received.
Streaming file 3, September 1, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes). Trinette Singleton speaks with Nicole Duffy Robertson about Astarte including the reasons it was challenging for both the technical crew and the dancers; its enthusiastic reception on opening night; more on Joffrey's choreographic process; the motivation behind certain movements in her role as the goddess Astarte; reconstructing Astarte for the Joffrey Ballet [in 2002]; the popularity of Astarte with presenters and the technical difficulties of staging it on the road; Nancy Robinson's being cast as Astarte during Singleton's absence from the Company (between 1971 and 1972); ending her marriage and returning to the Company in 1973; Max [Maximiliano Zomosa], in particular the circumstances of his (bigamous) marriage to Noel Mason and his suicide in January 1969; Michael Uthoff, [Kurt] Jooss, and the staging of Jooss' The green table including her role as the Old Mother; her fond reminiscences of Jooss; the announcement of Jooss' death while on tour in San Francisco and the substitution of The green table (for Cakewalk) in that evening's program; performing The green table in Moscow (in the former Soviet Union); eventually getting permission to perform a complete Jooss evening (A ball in old Vienna, Pavane on the death of an Infanta, and The big city); other works in the repertory including ballets by [George] Balanchine and [Frederick] Ashton; Joffrey's reasons for this eclectic repertory; her return to the Company in 1973 and being cast in Joffrey's ballet Remembrances; more on the tour in Russia [the former Soviet Union] including the selection of the repertory, specific instructions on to how to behave, and various experiences while there including performance anecdotes; the appreciative audiences and requisite encores; (briefly) the Company's revivals of [Michel Fokine's] Petrouchka, [Waslav Nijinsky's] Afternoon of a faun, and [Leonide Massine's] Parade; [Rudolf] Nureyev's choice of the Company for his 1979 homage to [Serge] Diaghilev entitled Nureyev and Friends, and its subsequent versions; her impressions of Nureyev including his kindness to the dancers and impatience with the technical crew; Joffrey's interest in staging ballets from all eras; performing in ballets choreographed by Balanchine including Donizetti variations and Scotch symphony; Jacques D'Amboise s substituting for an injured dancer in Scotch symphony; an anecdote about Richard Cragun and her role as a prostitute in [John Cranko's] Taming of the shrew; getting her license to teach the Cecchetti method in Florida in 1973; a performance anecdote about [Arpino's] Suite Saint-Saens; the disbanding of the Company in 1979 due to financial difficulties with plans to form a new company in 1980; her acceptance of Joffrey's offer to rehire her as ballet mistress when he formed the new company; during this interim period marrying (guitarist Bill Washer), teaching, helping Joffrey with his then-inchoate work Postcards, and taking class; rejoining the new, smaller company in 1980; Joffrey's refusal to accommodate dancers who had children; her own pregnancy, in 1984; (briefly) her transition from performer to ballet mistress and teacher beginning in 1979-1980; suffering a major injury while performing in a pas de deux in Taming of the shrew and undergoing a long rehabilitation period; her last role with the Company, in 1984, as Madame La Patronne in Offenbach [Antony Tudor's Offenbach in the underworld]; the publicity she received as Astarte including her photograph on the cover of Time magazine; anecdotes illustrating Joffrey as the person who helped her master difficult steps while Arpino was more concerned with the dancers' conveying of certain images and emotions; an anecdote illustrating how Joffrey in effect made her expand her technical range; asking Joffrey (unsuccessfully) for a different role in Alvin Ailey's Feast of ashes rather than the one in which she had been cast; her very favorable impressions of Ailey when he staged Feast of ashes on the Company; Joffrey's unpredictability when casting, for example giving her the ballerina role in Twyla Tharp's Deuce coupe; how this was another instance of Joffrey's making her extend her range; the differing influences on her of Arpino and Joffrey; her feeling that she will "always be a Joffrey person."
Streaming file 4, September 4, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes). Trinette Singleton speaks with Nicole Duffy Robertson about how Joffrey loved the festive aspects of Christmas; her first attempts at choreography, on the concert group at the Joffrey School [Joffrey Concert Group] and subsequently Joffrey II; differences in Joffrey's and Arpino's choreographic styles including her tendency to be more like Joffrey in her focus on music and patience with working out steps; teaching at the School after her daughter Katie was born; her daughter's exposure to dance through Singleton's work and her later pursuit of dance as a sideline (to music and physics); deciding on the initial cast as Singleton's single greatest choreographic challenge; opportunities to choreograph that arose through her Joffrey connections including for the American Repertory Ballet in Princeton (New Jersey) where she worked with (her former student) Doug Martin and Mary Barton; being engaged by Mrs. D. [Edith D'Addario] to teach at the relatively short-lived New School/Joffrey joint program; reasons she and her family moved to Long Pond, Pennsylvania; her next academic teaching position, at DeSales University including the role of her student Jamie [Johnson] in how she came to be offered this position; receiving an honorary doctorate from DeSales; opportunities to choreograph and travel as part of the academic experience; working as ballet mistress for Mary L. Hepner at Ballet Theatre of Pennsylvania; Nana Badrena, her fellow ballet mistress, and works they choreographed for the company including the "Dracula ballet" [Dracula]; leaving Ballet Theatre Pennsylvania and opening a dance school, Bravo!Dance and small company (Bravo!Dance) with Nana Badrena and her husband Luis; the demise of Bravo! Dance and Singleton's eventually turning the school over to Lynne Mariani; the move to Easton (Pennsylvania) in 2004; teaching and choreographing at Dolly Haltzman's school in the Lehigh Valley [Dolly Haltzman Dance Academy/Repertory Ballet Academy]; her friendship with Haltzman's daughter Jennifer [Haltzman Tracy] and their continuing collaboration as directors of Repertory Dance Theater of the Lehigh Valley; teaching at the Joffrey School in New York after the company moved to Chicago (Illinois) including the jockeying for control after Mrs. D. left; her reasons for leaving the School including Arpino's death in 2008; working with Arpino (in Chicago) during the last year of his life including how grateful she is to have had this time with him; more on the School, in particular how it has changed since Arpino's death; the Gerald Arpino Foundation including the roles of Harriet Ross and Char [Charthel Arthur] in its inception and development; its current status including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its activities; working with the Library [The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts] to archive the Joffrey Ballet's history including her feeling of urgency with respect to gathering information from people who knew and worked with Joffrey; her belief that Arpino was underestimated as a choreographer; the Foundation's efforts to have [Joffrey's and Arpino's] works reconstructed and performed as key to keeping their legacy alive; learning a ballet from a videotape as compared to learning it from a person; the Foundation's current project of recording master classes based on the notes she and other former Company members (including Charthel Arthur and Kim Sagami) had kept from their classes with Joffrey; the eclectic sources on which Joffrey based his teaching curriculum including Vaganova, Bournonville, and Cecchetti and what he emphasized in class; Sasha Anawalt's book [The Joffrey Ballet : Robert Joffrey and the making of an American dance company, c. 1996]; her regret that Joffrey's and Arpino's works are not seen much in New York since the move to Chicago; the many former Joffrey dancers who are now spread out across the country at regional companies and institutions; films about or relating to the Joffrey Ballet including Save the last dance (2001) and The company (2006); Mavericks [of American dance], the 2012 documentary about the Joffrey Ballet; her sense that through the efforts of former Company members and the Foundation the Company's legacy is continuing to be transmitted to the next generation; the importance of live theater in arts education; her hope that post-Covid, the arts return to what they were and that the opening of the Joffrey archive at the Library will stir new interest in the Company's legacy; her belief that Joffrey and Arpino did want their work to continue to be performed; the lifelong influence of the Joffrey Ballet on her own life; Joffrey as both ahead of his time and a reviver of great works of the past.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.
Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

Genre/Form

Video recordings.
Oral histories.

Note

Interview with Trinette Singleton (in Easton, Pennsylvania) conducted remotely by Nicole Duffy Robertson (in New York, N.Y.) on August 24 and 26 and September 1, and 4, 2020 for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3495
As of March 2023, the video 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 video files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming.
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 a gift from Leslie Toner Curtis.

Source (note)

0# PAMI;

Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3495

OCLC

1340043206

Author

Singleton, Trinette, Interviewee.

Title

Interview with Trinette Singleton, 2020/ Conducted remotely by Nicole Duffy Robertson on August 24 and 26 and September 1, and 4, 2020; Producer: the Dance Oral History Project

Imprint

2020

Playing Time

070200

Type of Content

spoken word

two-dimensional moving image

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

video

computer

Type of Carrier

online resource

volume

Digital File Characteristics

video file

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Event

Recorded remotely for for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2020, August 24 and 26 and September 1 and 4 Easton, Pennsylvania and New York (N.Y.).

Funding

The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by a gift from Leslie Toner Curtis.

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Added Author

Robertson, Nicole Duffy, Interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3495

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