Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Josh Anderson, 2021/ Conducted remotely by Maria Elena Ricci on April 15, 2021; Producer: Dance Oral History Project

Author

Anderson, Josh

Publication

2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Ricci, Maria Elena

Description

1 streaming video file (approximately 39 minutes) : sound, color. +

Summary

Streaming file, April 15, 2021 (approximately 39 minutes). Josh Anderson speaks with Maria Elena Ricci about his educational and professional background in dance including three years (as an undergraduate) at the University of Utah and his performing on a gig basis nationally; eventually moving to Chicago, Illinois where his "gig life" flourished; some of the organizations with which he worked; starting to choreograph more and realizing that his work straddled theater and dance; developing as an artist through such experiences as the filming of his work Fit to be tied and working with The Fly Honeys; his decision to attend graduate school [Ohio State University] where he focused on dance film and theater; after graduate school returning to Chicago with his partner Gina Hoch-Stall; his first becoming aware of COVID-19 and its potential impact in February and March 2020; notwithstanding his love of film, his difficulties with digital dance; how he has remained active as a dance artist, including his work with Kate Corby and Dancers; how sitting and waiting has helped him develop ideas and themes; reasons he thinks dance artists were able to adapt so quickly albeit not necessarily always in an artistically satisfactory way; his response to the Black Lives Matter movement including regular meetings with a group of artists to discuss what actions they can take for positive change; the immediate effect of the pandemic on his own mental health; after the murder of George Floyd, his offering of free classes to help others find some sense of stability and calm; his current focus on attempting to bridge the gap between white bodies and bodies of color in contact improvisation; the fraught issue of touch for Black and brown bodies, specifically touch from white bodies [very short gap in recording]; his learning to "shut up and listen" after he had pushed a Black student beyond the limits of what she found comfortable in a contact improvisation class; more generally, how he tries to ensure that each student is comfortable with the level of touch in contact improvisation; the importance of constantly questioning the power and actions of gatekeepers.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project.
• COVID-19 Dance Worker Narratives Project
• Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

• Anderson, Josh > Interviews
• COVID-19 (Disease) and the arts
• Black lives matter movement
• Improvisation in dance
• Social justice

Genre/Form

• Video recordings.
• Oral histories.

Note

• Interview with Josh Anderson (in Chicago, Illinois) conducted remotely by Maria Elena Ricci (in Rome, Italy) on April 15, 2021; as part of the COVID-19 Dance Worker Narratives Project for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• This interview is part of the COVID-19 Dance Worker Narratives Project, which was created by the Jerome Robbins Dance Division's Oral History Project in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent Black Lives Matter protests. The COVID-19 Dance Worker Narratives Project comprises 58 peer-to-peer interviews that were gathered from May 2020 to February 2022 from dance communities in New York City and across the United States.
• For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3602
• Sound quality is good overall. There is one very short gap in the recording.
• 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)

• Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Funding (note)

• The processing of the COVID-19 Dance Workers Narratives Project was made possible by a grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3602

OCLC

1427197337

Author

Anderson, Josh, Interviewee.

Title

Interview with Josh Anderson, 2021/ Conducted remotely by Maria Elena Ricci on April 15, 2021; Producer: Dance Oral History Project

Imprint

2021

Playing Time

003900

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

Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Event

Recorded for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as part of the COVID-19 Dance Worker Narratives Project 2021, April 15

Funding

The processing of the COVID-19 Dance Workers Narratives Project was made possible by a grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Connect to:

Added Author

Ricci, Maria Elena, Interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3602

*MGZDOH 3602