Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Theodora Wiesner [sound recording].

Author

Wiesner, Theodora.

Publication

1971.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• McDonagh, Don.
• Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Description

2 sound discs (ca. 62 min.) : digital, stereo; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 32 min.). Theodora Wiesner speaks with Don McDonagh about attending New York University and taking dance lessons from Martha Graham; early Graham classes in the 1930s that were Denishawn inspired; the frequency of performances; her first transcontinental tour, consisting of 6 weeks with 3 performances per week; Graham's original dance trio; Graham as soloist; the need for students to have supplemental jobs in order to continue dancing without pay; the average size of Graham's dance classes; Merle Armitage's role in the Graham company tours; the first piece she danced in, Heretic; her favorite Graham dances, including Primitive mysteries and Letter to the world; the style of Graham's movement and the tension created; the difficulty younger dancers have in learning Graham pieces; Merce Cunningham and Erick Hawkins, and their respective influence on the Graham company; Bennington school and Mills College, and the summer dance programs; attending Bennington; the layout of the Bennington campus, including dorms, studios, etc.; dancing in Panorama, and the effect that had; Alexander Calder's sculpture used at Bennington for the dance, Panorama; Louis Horst's influence on Graham.
• Disc 2 (ca. 30 min.). Theodora Wiesner speaks with Don McDonagh about the avant garde in music and dance, and Louis Horst's contribution; Martha Graham as Miss Hush and the local radio contest; dance tours, and the gymnasium circuit; Geordie Graham, and dancing with Graham; ways in which Graham would work with composers, scores and choreography; Graham's choreography in the 1950s, including Seraphic dialogue; public sentiment regarding Graham and her dancers; audience's inability to understand Graham's choreography; the change in audience response and gradual approval; the changes in art, dance, and music, and the contemporary attitudes toward visual arts, especially the avant garde; politics of the 1940s and 1950s; McCarthyism and links to communism; adventurousness viewed as communist [abrupt end].

Subjects

• Graham, Martha > Panorama
• Graham, Martha > Heretic
• Bennington School of the Dance
• Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance
• Martha Graham Dance Company
• Horst, Louis
• Avant garde
• Mills College > Department of Education
• Wiesner, Theodora > Interviews
• Graham, Martha > Seraphic dialogue

Note

• Interview with Theodora Wiesner conducted by Don McDonagh on Dec. 11, 1971.
• Each disc ends abruptly.
• Open as of August 22, 2012.

Funding (note)

• Recording was preserved through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Source (note)

• Don McDonagh;

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2547

OCLC

262558957

Author

Wiesner, Theodora. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Theodora Wiesner [sound recording].

Imprint

1971.

Funding

Recording was preserved through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Local Note

Archive orig. : *MGZTCO 3-2547

Dubbing master : *MGZTD 4-2547, nos. 1-2

Source

Gift; Don McDonagh; 2007

Added Author

McDonagh, Don. Interviewer

McDonagh, Don. Donor

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2547 sound disc