Side 2: Begins abruptly; David Vaughan speaks with Marie Rambert about Marius Petipa and his ballets; De Valois speaks about Petipa's choreography and dance as a theatrical art, dependent on the dancers' interpretations; she recites a verse from Molière in French (with partial English translations), ca. 7:00-12:04; Rambert speaks about learning this verse as well as other poetry; Vaughan speaks briefly about being in a performance of the play Wesele, "The Wedding" (1901), by Stanisław Wyspiański; Vaughan speaks about his role as archivist for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company; Rambert speaks about the last time she visited New York and the first time she saw works by Merce Cunningham; they speak about the success of Cunningham's recent performances at Sadler's Wells Theatre; Vaughan speaks about how Cunningham uses videotaping to document his choreographic process; Rambert briefly mentions Frederick Ashton; Rambert speaks about teaching her students excerpts of Petipa's choreography, including from Sleeping beauty; Rambert speaks about encouraging Ashton, one of her pupils, to learn Petipa's choreography; she tells an anecdote about Ashton's early choreography and his request for music to accompany it [partially inaudible]; she speaks about Ashton's Tragedy of fashion; or Scarlet scissors, choreography for a 1926 revue staged by Nigel Playfair and her husband, Ashley Dukes; they continue to speak about Ashton's Tragedy of fashion, including Eugene Goossens's accompaniment music, Kaleidoscope; Rambert speaks about Mikhail Baryshnikov's performance they saw the previous night; Vaughan speaks about Baryshnikov in the ballet Spectre de la rose as compared to Rudolf Nureyev's version of the same role; [ca. 35:37-36:43, they look at photographs together]; they continue to speak about Baryshnikov including his dancing with the New York City Ballet and his stipulation that Ashton create a ballet for him before joining the Royal Ballet; Rambert speaks about recent "English ballet" productions that she attended; Rambert speaks about how Cunningham's works are like paintings and asks Vaughan about his choreographic process; Vaughan speaks about how Cunningham choreographs independently from the music and describes a recent performance of Cunningham's Sounddance (1975); Vaughan lists the publications he writes for and mentions that he's in the research phase to write a book on Cunningham.
Alternative title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
David Vaughan interviews Marie Rambert, probably in London, England, in July, 1980; correlating to Merce Cunningham Dance Company performances at the Sadler's Wells Theatre.
Title, date and location provided by cataloger based on audition and handwritten note on original cassette.
Handwritten note on original cassette: "Side 1: Kaleidoscope 1 July 1980 ; MC/JC".
Sound quality is fair; the interviewee speaks at a distance from the microphone and is inaudible at times.
Donor's inventory number: C350.
Access (note)
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
Source (note)
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
Linking entry (note)
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Author
Rambert, Marie, interviewee.
Title
Interview with Marie Rambert, 1980-07.
Production
[probably July, 1980?].
Playing time
004606
Type of content
spoken word
Type of medium
audio
Type of carrier
audiocassette
online resource
Digital file characteristics
audio file
Event
Recorded in, London, England, [probably 1980 July?].
Restricted access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Local note
Transferred from original analog cassette by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The sound quality of the file transferred from side 1 is poor and side 2 was not transferred.
Tansferred from original analog cassette, (due to the poor sound quality and incomplete transfer), by the New York Public Library's Audio and Moving Image Preservation (PAMI) sound engineering staff at the Library for the Performing Arts on May 16, 2015; two preservation files were created based on cassette sides: myh_ltca1186_v01f01_pm, and, myh_ltca1186_v01f02_pm.