Research Catalog

Interview with David White

Title
Interview with David White, 2016.
Author
White, David R.
Publication
2016.

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AudioSupervised use *MGZMT 3-3359Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors
Farlow, Lesley
Description
3 streaming files (approximately six hours) : digital +
Summary
  • Streaming audio file 1, December 15, 2016 (approximately one hour and 54 minutes). David White speaks with Lesley Farlow about his background, in particular his experience as a student in Paris during the labor unrest and student riots in 1968; working in Paris as a courier and subsequently as a research assistant at Time-Life; his impressions of Jean-Luc Godard's film One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil) including its relation to the politics of the time; seeing his first dance performance, by Merce Cunningham; returning to the United States (to continue his studies at Wesleyan University) and making a film with his friend Steven Talbot, about the March on Washington; taking dance class from Cheryl Cutler; other dance and theatrical experiences at Wesleyan University; joining the Social Committee and producing rock concerts; his political activities at the time; his life after graduating from Wesleyan University in particular his participation in the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina; performing in Rudy Perez's site-specific work Monumental exchange; Bob Abramson and Geographical fugue (by Ernest Toch); the beginnings of his association with DTW [Dance Theater Workshop]; his sole work of choreography, Going down blue, a duet for him and Kathy Posin; (briefly) Bessie Schönberg; his impressions of Meredith Monk's Vessel: an opera epic; his transition from dancer to administrator and writer; his relationship with Dance Theater Workshop; establishing the New York Dance Umbrella; Ted Striggles and the creation of the Economic Survival workshops and Pentacle Management; how he came to manage Dance Theater Workshop; renting, for Dance Theater Workshop, the space that had been used by Jerome Robbins for his American Theater Laboratory; various companies and artists who rehearsed and performed there; resources Dance Theater Workshop provided to artists; programing showcases, in particular the selection process, including an anecdote about Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.
  • Streaming audio file 2, December 16, 2016 (approximately two hours). David White speaks with Lesley Farlow about the [contemporary] dance scene in the early 1970s including what he perceived as social and geographic divides in the dance community; the situation at Dance Theater Workshop as of 1975 including an anecdote about Laura Dean's creation of her work Song; the principles behind his programing decisions; the Theater Development Fund's TDF voucher program; the use of video in documentation, beginning with a project spearheaded by David Vaughan to document the late James Waring's works; managing programing for the Fresh Tracks (Choreographers' workshop) including an anecdote about David Dorfman; the audition process for Fresh Tracks; Bessie Schönberg and the workshops she developed; how White analyzes a work including the two questions he always asks (himself) about it; White's greater concern with ideas than with technique or training; Schönberg's contributions to the dance world; the Out-of-Towners series including the ideas behind its creation; the National Performance Network including its origins, sources of funds, and evolution; the diversity of the participants in the National Performance Network; some of the projects involving Latin artists such as Merián Soto, Pepatián, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, and Arthur Avilés, including the Tour de Fuerza and Revisiones; using the Suitcase Fund to learn on site from European cultural networks and festivals; the enthusiastic response of Latin American artists to invitations to participate in the National Performance Network and the eventual creation of the Network of Contemporary Arts Producers in Latin America and the Caribbean [Red de Promotores Culturales de Latinoamérica y el Caribe]; other organizations that were inspired by the National Performance Network, for example in Germany; expanding the National Performance Network; working with artists in some eastern European countries after the fall of their respective authoritarian governments; projects involving artists in China, Vietnam, and other Asian countries; funding Reggie Wilson's and Ronald K. Brown's trips to Africa; more on using the Suitcase Fund for foreign outreach, in Japan; bringing Los Muñequitos de Matanzas from Cuba to tour in the United States; working with artists in Canada; the increasingly centrifugal structure of, and concerns of constituent groups in, the National Performance Network; how this affected the development of the Network; a new project that provided funds for regional dance artists and companies in New York State; the creation of the Bessie awards including their role in increasing an artist's visibility; the establishing of the award categories; the first awards ceremony, at the Joyce Theater; anecdotes about the Bessies; the concern on the part of some dance fund administrators about the potential for political fall-out from some of the works presented [through the Network with government funds].
  • Streaming audio file 3, December 16, 2016 (approximately two hours). David White speaks with Lesley Farlow about the return of the Bessies award ceremony in 2016 to BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music]; various people and organizations including Philip Morris [Companies Inc.], who have supported the dance community over the years; how the Bessies award ceremonies have reflected the zeitgeist including the ceremony held shortly after 9/11 [September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001]; Jennifer Homans' criticism of having the award ceremony so soon after the attacks; the dance community's response to political and social issues including the anti-nuclear weapon movement; the AIDS crisis including its impact on, and the responses of the dance community; his feeling that death was the defining theme of this era; how the AIDS crisis and the increased visibility of gay life contributed to the so-called culture wars, which led, in turn, to White's belief that the dance world had to build stronger ties with and engage the community at large; the Public Imagination project and other programs intended to involve local communities; other artists and organizations who were trying to address local social issues; the Yard's program Making it; the choreographer Ellen Robbins' work with children including classes and performances by the children; Economy Tires Theater including its presentation of Bill Irwin's show Not quite New York; other productions presented by Economy Tires Theater including an act by (the then-unknown) Whoopi Goldberg; some of the people he worked with at the time including David Lindsay-Abaire; more on other productions of the time including a collaboration with David Safer; Stephanie Skura and her work Art business in which White appeared; some of the (many) people who made significant contributions to Dance Theater Workshop and its various projects including the Suitcase Fund and The National Public Network; reviving the Poor dancer's almanac in 1993 with himself and Tia Tibbets Levinson as executive editors; the NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] inspired production, performed at the 12th annual International Humans in Space conference in Washington, D.C.; various memorable people who performed at Dance Theater Workshop including the ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine; tap dancers, including Cookie Cook, Honi Coles, and Lynn Dally; Rachel Lampert and her work Doing the dance; Karole Armitage and her work Drastic classicism; Marty Pottenger and her works The construction stories and City water tunnel no. 3; Ralf Ralf (the brothers Jonathan Stone and Barnaby Stone) and their works; David Parsons and Danny Ezralow in their work Brothers; Doug Elkins and some of his works including Mo(or)town; Elkins' work Fräulein Maria as one of the first works White presented at the Yard; White's conceptualizing of performing arts events in terms of the culture of familiarity and expectations versus the culture of curiosity; his role in continuing the expansion of the realm of the unfamiliar by for example presenting experimental dance.
Alternative Title
  • Dance oral history project
  • Dance audio archive
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Sound recordings.
  • Oral histories.
Note
  • Interview with David White conducted by Lesley Farlow, on December 15 and 16, 2016, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project.
  • For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3359.
  • 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.
  • Sound quality is excellent.
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
Access (note)
  • 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 3-3359
OCLC
1090063949
Author
White, David R., interviewee.
Title
Interview with David White, 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
Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Event
Recorded for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts December 15 and 16, 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
Farlow, Lesley, interviewer.
Research Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3359
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