Research Catalog

Interview with David Hamilton Thomson.

Title
Interview with David Hamilton Thomson. April 4 and 11 2016.
Author
Thomson, David Hamilton, 1957-
Publication
2016.

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AudioSupervised use *MGZMT 3-3330Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors
  • Yaa Asantewaa, Eva
  • Thomson, David Hamilton,1957-
Description
5 streaming files (approximately 3 hours and 27 minutes) : digital +
Summary
  • Streaming audio file 1, April 4 (approximately 49 minutes). David Thomson speaks with Eva Yaa Asantewaa about his family, of Jamaican descent; his childhood in the northeast Bronx (N.Y.) in the 1960s, and some of his childhood interests including computers and history; briefly, playing cello and piano due to the influence of his mother, a pianist; attending the Bronx High School of Science and his first dance classes: a two-week course at Dance Theatre of Harlem; resuming dance classes while at Haverford College and transferring to SUNY Purchase [State University of New York College at Purchase] to pursue dance; briefly, studying under Larry [Lawrence] Rhodes at the Dennis Wayne's Dancers School for a summer; reasons he pursued a Culture in Society (Liberal Arts) degree rather than a dance degree, and his senior project, which included dance; his dance teachers at SUNY Purchase including Carolyn Brown, Sarah Stackhouse, and Mel Wong; briefly, the movement style of a piece by Kevin Wynn he performed in while at SUNY Purchase; the dance projects and choreographers he worked with after graduating, including for Bebe Miller as well as in José Limón's Missa brevis, Jane Comfort's Event horizons, and Remy Charlip's Airmail dances and Ten men; his office jobs in the early 1980s including at the Artist Fellowship Program at the New York Foundation for the Arts; reasons he chose office and computer-related work to support himself throughout his career as a dancer; briefly, his family.
  • Streaming audio file 2, April 4 (approximately 26 minutes). David Thomson speaks with Eva Yaa Asantewaa about joining Bebe Miller's newly-formed company [Bebe Miller Company]; the dancers and rehearsals at P.S. 1 for Miller's Trapped in Queens; briefly, being cast in his first music video, Shannon's Let the music play; an anecdote about working at the box office for Whoopi Goldberg's one-woman show [Whoopi Goldberg, 1984] at Dance Theater Workshop; the circumstances that led him, while on tour with Marta Renzi, to audition for the Trisha Brown Company; rehearsals for Brown's Foray forêt and Astral converted (50"), and the racial politics in dance, in particular, perceptions of black dancers performing in predominantly white [postmodern] dance companies.
  • Streaming audio file 3, April 4 (approximately 28 minutes). David Thomson speaks with Eva Yaa Asantewaa about singing in the group Hot Mouth with Grisha Coleman, Jonathan Stone, and Viola Sheely; his transition from performing in abstract dance to performing in works, by black choreographers, that include text, in particular, Tracie Morris's Afrofuturistic and Ralph Lemon's Tree [part II of his Geography trilogy]; a brief anecdote about being invited by Sekou Sundiata to participate in his work entitled: finding the 51st (dream) state: Sekou Sundiata's America Project, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; more on text and narrative in performance, including the improvised score Lemon gave him for a section in Tree; briefly, working with all-black casts in Lemon's Come home, Charley Patton and How can you stay in the house all day and not go anywhere?; the rewards and challenges of having worked with so many different choreographers throughout his career, especially in terms of finding his own creative language; his memories of an improvisation from a rehearsal for Alain Buffard's Baron Samedi, in Nîmes, France.
  • Streaming audio file 4, April 11 (approximately 53 minutes). David Thomson speaks with Eva Yaa Asantewaa about his insights into arts funding and arts administration while working as the program assistant for the Artist Fellowship Program at the New York Foundation for the Arts; general observations regarding how the economic expansion of the 1980s had an impact on funding sources for the arts, as well as the shift in funding to include multiculturalism and corporate sponsorship; the sponsorship of Philip Morris and Company for performances at the Whitney Museum of American Art, including his experiences performing there with Mel Wong and Bebe Miller in the mid-1980's; employment negotiations with the Trisha Brown Company and his role in the eventual development of a contract between the dancers and the company; several anecdotes about negotiating payment with choreographers; his participation in seminars in the 1980s organized by David White that later developed into the Dancers Forum; how language describes dance in the context of grant applications and the visual arts; the dialogue he sees developing about dance in New York, especially through Movement Research Journal and Critical Correspondence, and how this relates to the language used about dance in other cities; the current state of dance administration, including current administrators, and economic aspects of dance; his approach as an advocate of dance and dancers in the context of government funding and community support; the divide he sees between the financial compensation received by dance administrators and choreographers compared to that received by dancers; his receipt as a dancer of a United States Artists Fellowship; the current financial support of dance by the Doris Duke Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
  • Streaming audio file 5, April 11 (approximately 51 minutes). David Thomson speaks with Eva Yaa Asantewaa about the phenomenon in the 1980s of dancers moving toward a more collaborative role with certain choreographers, for example Stephen Petronio's role in [Trisha Brown's] Set and reset, which Thomson later performed; other examples of a collaborative relationship between choreographer and dancer, in particular, his experiences with Bebe Miller as well as with Ralph Lemon; briefly, the impact of the AIDs epidemic on the evolution of the gay rights movement as well as on the dance community; the rise of multiculturalism and the increased value placed on dance aesthetics in the 1980s; more on the dancer's role in the creative process; briefly, reflections on lineage in dance, for example, the memorial he recently attended for Fred Holland and the artist plaques in the studios at the MacDowell [Colony] Residency; his audition with the Trisha Brown Company; changes in his movement style while dancing with that company; briefly, his last year with the Trisha Brown Company, when Brown was codifying her movement material; briefly, singing with Hot Mouth; finding his own interests and identity as a freelance performer; discovering more about himself as a performer through working with Alain Buffard on Baron Samedi; a rehearsal of Lemon's Come home Charley Patton, while exploring the idea of possession; learning to identify as an "elder" in the dance community and the ephemeral nature of a dancer's career; briefly, working with other black artists, including an anecdote about Miller; his current work on the Bessie Award [New York Dance and Performance awards] Committee and its attempts to broaden the scope of inclusion and aesthetic values in the dance community.
Alternative Title
  • Interview with David Thomson
  • Interview with David H. Thomson
  • Dance Oral History Project.
  • Dance Audio Archive.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Sound recordings.
  • Oral histories.
Note
  • Interview with David Hamilton Thomson conducted by Eva Yaa Asantewaa on April 4 and 11, 2016, in New York City for The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project.
  • For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3330.
  • As of March 2023, the audio 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 audio files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming on site only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
Access (note)
  • Access only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center.
  • Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Funding (note)
  • The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.
Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3330
OCLC
1017660722
Author
Thomson, David Hamilton, 1957- interviewee.
Title
Interview with David Hamilton Thomson. April 4 and 11 2016.
Imprint
2016.
Type of Content
spoken word
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
audio
Type of Carrier
online resource
volume
Digital File Characteristics
audio file
Restricted Access
Access only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center.
Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Event
Recorded for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts April 4 and 11, 2016 New York (N.Y.)
Funding
The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.
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Added Author
Yaa Asantewaa, Eva, interviewer.
Thomson, David Hamilton,1957- interviewee.
Research Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3330
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