Research Catalog

Interview with Alfredo Gonzales

Title
Interview with Alfredo Gonzales, 2020/ conducted remotely by Sandra Rivera on November 18, 19, and 20, 2020; Producer: Dance Oral History Project
Author
Gonzales, Alfredo
Publication
2020

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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections Dance to submit a request in person.

Moving imageSupervised use *MGZMT 3-3499Performing Arts Research Collections Dance

Details

Additional Authors
Rivera, Sandra
Description
3 streaming video files (approximately 5 hrs. and 15 sec. min.) : sound, color. +
Summary
  • Streaming file 1, November 18, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 28 minutes). Alfredo Gonzales speaks with Sandra Rivera about his birthplace, the agricultural and ranching community of Chino, California; his family background including relatives who worked as braceros; the prejudice against Chicanos; he discusses a photograph of his great-grandfather on horseback that relates to a recent exhibition at MoMA; he speaks about being inculcated as a child with a strong cultural identity as a Chicano and Catholic; his first discovering dance as a child at parties, weddings and other gatherings; joining a Mexican folkloric dance group when he was in 4th grade and realizing that he had a natural ability for learning choreography; his exposure in elementary school to various other performing arts including opera and jazz music and how this tied into his interest in dance; his father's background as a social dancer; he names his parents: Robert and Ramona Gonzales and his three siblings: Robert [Gonzales] Jr., Genevieve, and Steven; taking classes in jazz dance, ballet, and modern dance while in high school and at San Jose State College [University] including his immediate affinity for ballet; majoring in drama at college where he was part of the dance community and performed frequently including in [Igor] Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat; some of his teachers; auditioning successfully with Stuart Hodes for the Tisch School of the Arts [at New York University] and arriving in New York City on September 1, 1974; his experience at the Tisch School of the Arts including classes with Hodes, Nanette Charisse, Bertram Ross and others, and the eclectic array of techniques he learned; memorable experiences from this time including a talk by Charles Weidman and performing in 1976 at the Delacorte Theater [at the annual New York Dance Festival] with Rachel Lampert and Linda Tarnay; some of the other performers at the Delacorte Theater at the Festival including Larry [Lawrence] Rhodes and Naomi Sorkin from the Harkness Ballet and Jennifer Muller; his social life in New York City including a small group of college friends who had moved there; his having come out as gay as an additional reason he wanted to live in New York City; how his family felt about his having moved so far from home; taking class with Lynn Simonson and eventually teaching Simonson technique at her studio for about 10 years; seeing a performance of Revelations on television (around 1960) by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as his watershed moment for forming the goal of joining a dance company and touring internationally; the circumstances of his meeting Tina Ramirez and joining Ballet Hispanico [of New York] in 1976 including an anecdote about his first performance with the company in [Jose Coronado's] Fiesta en Vera Cruz; the novel experience of performing with Latino dancers who had different backgrounds (for example, Puerto Rican and Spanish) than his own; the challenge of being a newcomer in the company; how he viewed his Mexican heritage in the context of dancing in Talley Beatty's Tres cantos; the eclectic nature of the repertoire at Ballet Hispanico as a continuation, with the addition of flamenco, of his eclectic training; how he felt performing in Tina Ramirez's Group portrait of Carmen; his thoughts on watching a videotape of himself performing with the company at the Delacorte Theater; Louis Johnson's Echoes of Spain; Bill (William) Carter's Such sweet thunder including reminiscences of Carter; some of the dancers with whom he performed at Ballet Hispanico; touring with the company in Mexico and the United States, in particular small towns in the Midwest; touring in France in 1979; the pleasure of having his family see him perform on tour in Texas; the prejudice he and company members encountered in Lubbock (Texas); dance as a great equalizer as evidenced by the company members' experience at the local dance hall.
  • Streaming file 2, November 19, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 55 minutes). Alfredo Gonzales speaks with Sandra Rivera about his sense of being an outsider at home and on tour; Ballet Hispanico [of New York] as Tina Ramirez's showcase for Latino dancers and Latino dance of various origins and traditions; the Ballet Hispanico dancer Carmen Sauce including her explanation for the spelling of his name with an "s" rather than a "z"; the often fraught issue of Spanish-language ability among the Latino community; reminiscences of Anna Sokolow and her work Capriccios; leaving Ballet Hispanico in 1979 and performing at Radio City Music Hall in a musical adaptation of the animated film Snow White and the seven dwarfs; an anecdote about auditioning for Frank Rogers [sic: Frank Wagner], the director; his next engagement, dancing in an [Actors] Equity dinner theater production of Carousel in Warehouse Field, Connecticut; following this engagement his many unsuccessful auditions and period of alcohol abuse; the constant pressure of competing with other dancers and being subject to the scrutiny of critics and audiences; going "cold turkey" in 1982 and remaining sober to this day; performing at various venues including Riverside Church, Dance Theater Workshop, and art galleries; some of the choreographers he worked with (in the 1980s): Rachel Lampert, Linda Tarnay, Joan Lombardi, Paul Sanasardo, and Laurie De Vito; his eight years or so with De Vito, who worked in both Simonson technique and her own style; (briefly) more on his working with Lombardi and Sanasardo; Lynne Taylor-Corbett and performing at her invitation in a music video [around 1984] for the television show ABC Rocks; an anecdote about his father's seeing him perform in a high school production of Bye bye Birdie; his ideal life: taking class and performing; he reflects on his efforts to keep his personal and private lives separate, some of his personality traits, and the restrictions currently imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic; the AIDS crisis, in particular how gay men were blamed for it and living with the guidelines for avoiding infection; the devastating number of deaths in the dance world; matriculating in 1992 at the Banks Street College for Teachers and obtaining his Masters of Science of Education in 1994; the challenges of his first public school teaching job; his transition to teaching dance education including his jobs at the Dance Education Laboratory (founded by Jody Gottfried Arnhold) at the 92nd St. Y and the Manhattan School for Children (1995-2000) where he became the head of the local chapter of UFT (United Federation of Teachers); his work during this period with other institutions including the New Victory Theater and the Center for Arts Education; leaving the Manhattan School for Children in 2000 for a full time position at P.S. 116; the diverse student body and large class sizes at P.S. 116; the dance program curriculum he created for grades kindergarten through fifth, which he called Creative Modern Dance; the struggle at one point to keep the dedicated dance room including Scott [M.] Stringer's support; his educating the P.S. 116 administration about what dance is and how it can contribute to an academic education; how he tailored the course content to his students' backgrounds and interests including his use of film and storytelling; his methods for teaching technique, dance vocabulary, counting, and creating dances out of blocks of movements; the annual student performances for the parents; the discontinuation of the dance program at P.S. 116 after he stopped teaching there full time; reflections on his experience at P.S. 116, in particular the positive aspects.
  • Streaming file 3, November 20, 2020 (approximately 1 hour and 52 minutes). Alfredo Gonzales speaks with Sandra Rivera about his work as a dance educator at elementary schools in New York City including his efforts to make his curriculum relevant to his students' overall education; the expendability of arts teachers compared to academic teachers; his work with Jody Arnhold as a facilitator in the professional development program for dance teachers (headed by Joan Finklestein) in the New York City Department of Education; the challenges of developing appropriate curricula for children ranging from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade and his progressive (from grade-to-grade) curriculum; his eclectic training in technique and broad performing experience as an asset in creating class content tailored to the capabilities and interests of his students; his background in African dance beginning with classes in college; [Elgie] Gaynell Sherrod and her role in bringing Katherine Dunham technique into the Board of Education's professional development program; his participation in the Katherine Dunham Institute-sponsored intensive Dunham technique workshop (around 2002 or 2003, at Lincoln Center); his long standing interest in Dunham and her role in bringing African dance to the United States; more on his experience at the intensive Dunham workshop including an anecdote about Dunham's singling him out for praise at a post-performance assembly; seeing Dunham perform on film; the flourishing of social and political activism at the time of his high school graduation (1969) and while he was at San Jose State University including Black power, Chicano power, gay liberation, and anti-Vietnam War protests; his own involvement in Chicano activism while in college; marching in the annual Gay Pride parade in New York City; the AIDS crisis including his participating in the AIDS Quilt project [NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt]; his family's response to his coming out as gay; reminiscences of seeing Bill T. Jones' work D-man in the waters; creating an AIDS-themed work himself; how and when he has used his legal name Alfred Michael Gonzales and his dance name Alfredo Gonzales; more on his work as a labor union representative including some of the many issues and challenges that arose during his time as chapter (and later district) representative; the origins of his own strong work ethic in the strong work ethic of his family including anecdotes about his grandmother and mother; how his work ethic informs everything he does, from teaching to his labor union work; as a dancer and as an elementary school teacher dealing with concepts of masculinity, femininity, and being gay including his conscious decision as a child not to appear feminine; his last eight years before retiring from the Department of Education in 2016, when he was working full time for the labor union (as a district representative) and teaching part time; his no longer dancing due to his many injuries; adjusting to retirement psychologically; anxiety as having been the dominant force throughout his life; realizing that many of his colleagues had different political views than he did; anecdotes illustrating his high student guidance counselor's prejudice against Chicanos; reflections on his dance career; his husband, including how they met; his words of advice for young people who are interested in dance careers.
Alternative Title
  • Interview with Alfred Gonzales
  • Dance Oral History Project.
  • Dance Audio Archive.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Video recordings.
  • Oral histories.
Note
  • Interview with Alfredo Gonzales conducted by Sandra Rivera on November 18, 19, and 20, 2020, remotely, in New York City (N.Y.), for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
  • For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3499
  • As of March 2023, the video 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 video files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming.
  • 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.
Source (note)
  • 0# PAMI;
Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3499
OCLC
1338232729
Author
Gonzales, Alfredo, Interviewee.
Title
Interview with Alfredo Gonzales, 2020/ conducted remotely by Sandra Rivera on November 18, 19, and 20, 2020; Producer: Dance Oral History Project
Imprint
2020
Playing Time
051500
Type of Content
spoken word
two-dimensional moving image
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
video
computer
Type of Carrier
online resource
volume
Digital File Characteristics
video file
Restricted Access
Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Event
Recorded for for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2020, November 18, 19, and 20 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.
Connect to:
Added Author
Rivera, Sandra, Interviewer.
Research Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3499
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