Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Adda Pourmel [sound recording].

Author

Pourmel, Adda, 1920-2008.

Publication

2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Ross, Janice.
• Oral history archive.

Found In

Popular Balanchine collection.

Description

3 sound discs (ca. 125 min.) : digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 48 min.). Adda Pourmel speaks with Janice Ross about her early dance training in Paris, including her classes with Madame [Olga] Preobrajenska; her classmate, Irina Baronova; her family background; Preobrajenska as a teacher; meeting Tanya [Tatiana] Stepanova [at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo reunion in 2000]; joining the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and traveling with her mother [Sophie Pourmel], who became the wardrobe mistress; an anecdote about the musical comedy, The King and I, and the leading actress's costume; her mother as a wardrobe mistress; how Adda Pourmel came to be in the cast of the musical comedy Song of Norway [the 1944, New York production choreographed by George Balanchine]; how she met her first husband, Larry Haynes, a singer in the chorus; while looking at photographs of Song of Norway, including the 1962 production, Pourmel tells an anecdote about her husband being fired from the show; speaks about Mary Ellen Moylan; identifies various people in the photographs; speaks about the character "mirror dance" she performed in Act I [in the scene just before the song Freddy and his fiddle; Hill of dreams?], including the costumes; her short stature not being a problem at that time; an anecdote about Sol Hurok and a tall dancer in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; more on the "mirror dance"; her attempt to learn to sing, including an anecdote about her husband's view of her singing; the scene following the song Freddy and his fiddle [ends abruptly].
• Disc 2 (ca. 47 min.). [Begins abruptly.] Adda Pourmel continues to speak with Janice Ross about the 1944, New York production of the musical comedy Song of Norway including, very briefly, the professionalism of the dancers and George Balanchine; various dances and scenes in Act II, including scenes Pourmel and Ross refer to, respectively, as the Chocolate shop pas de trois, Copenhagen, and Waltz eternal [name of song in the show], Peer Gynt [name of song in the show], Anitra's dance; the Concerto; Pourmel demonstrates some of the movements while commenting on them; speaks further about the dancing in Act II, including the difficulty of the choreography in the Concerto; Balanchine's insistence on technical competence; tells an anecdote about [Michel] Fokine and a production of Les sylphides in London; an anecdote about herself, Alexandra Danilova, Frederic Franklin, and Leonide Massine; speaks further about the Concerto; curtain calls; Balanchine's never duplicating himself; the Concerto as the dance to be reconstructed if it were possible to revive any from the show; the costumes in the Chocolate shop dance; Pourmel and Ross begins to talk about the dance set to the song Freddy and his fiddle; as recorded music from the show is played, Pourmel speaks about various topics including how Fokine, in contrast with Massine, never changed the choreography of his dances; a recording of the song Freddy and his fiddle is played as Pourmel demonstrates and speaks about the choreography; the song is played again [ends abruptly as song is playing; continues on disc 3].
• Disc 3 (ca. 30 min.). A recording of the song Freddy and his fiddle can be heard as Adda Pourmel demonstrates, for interviewer Janice Ross, the dance set to it; Pourmel speaks about the dance referred to as Anitra's dance; George Balanchine's strictness when working; leaving the production because she was pregnant; the favorable audience response to Song of Norway; reasons she and her mother did not think the show would be a success; her view that it was one of Balanchine's best Broadway shows; the composers [Robert] Wright and [George Wright]; tells an anecdote about auditioning for their musical comedy Kismet; speaks about marriages, including her own, that came out of the show; other people she knew from the show and from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Donor/Sponsor

Marianna L. Collins, 2010-2011.

Alternative Title

Popular Balanchine collection Audio materials.

Subjects

• Pourmel, Adda, 1920-2008
• Wright, Robert, 1914-2005 > Song of Norway
• Audiotapes > Pourmel, A
• Preobrajenska, Olga, 1870-1962
• Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
• Musicals > Song of Norway

Note

• Interview with Adda Pourmel conducted by Janice Ross on Feb. 17, 2001, in New Orleans. The interview was conducted as part of Ross's research of the musical comedy Song of Norway in connection with the Popular Balanchine project. An unidentified male who acts as the recording technician is also present. The interview is also being filmed, and at times Pourmel demonstrates choreography.
• Sound quality is good. There is occasional extraneous noise.

Funding (note)

• Preservation was funded by Marianna L. Collins, 2010-2011.

Source (note)

• George Balanchine Foundation.

Linking Entry (note)

• Forms part of: Popular Balanchine collection. Audio materials.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2719

OCLC

755906211

Author

Pourmel, Adda, 1920-2008. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Adda Pourmel [sound recording].

Imprint

2001.

Original Version

Original format : 2 sound cassettes (ca. 125 min.); 2 channels; 1 7/8 ips. Originally recorded in 2001.

Funding

Preservation was funded by Marianna L. Collins, 2010-2011.

Linking Entry

Forms part of: Popular Balanchine collection. Audio materials.

Local Note

Identification of the location as New Orleans is based on Adda Pourmel's reference to one of her children who is "living right here in New Orleans." Pourmel had moved to New Orleans in the late 1990s.

Archive original: *MGZTCO 3-2719

Related materials including a transcript of all or part of this interview may be found in the Library's archival collections cataloged under the subheading Song of Norway, in Popular Balanchine dossiers, 1927-2004; call number: *MGZMD 146. The transcript was prepared by the George Balanchine Foundation and may have been edited.

Source

Gift. George Balanchine Foundation.

Added Author

Ross, Janice. Interviewer

George Balanchine Foundation. Donor

Oral history archive.

Added Title

Popular Balanchine collection Audio materials.

Found In:

Popular Balanchine collection.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2719