The de Mille Legacy

Rehearsal photographs with Agnes de Mille and unidentified dancers

Sincere apologies yet again for the lack of posts recently.  You may imagine that we were very, very busy with Archives Month.  Here’s hoping that we will be a little more on the ball once more now that November has rolled around.

Short notice, but for all you fortunate New Yorkers, this Sunday offers a very special program at the 92nd Street Y in which the estimable and plucky New York Theatre Ballet will present “reconstructed works by Agnes de Mille from her Broadway and concert repertoire, followed by a panel discussion with Diana Byer, Gemze de Lappe and Elena Zahlmann discussing de Mille’s contributions to theater dance and her lexicon of dance gesture.”

We’d sure be there if we could!

While we’re at it, could anyone take a stab at identifying the individuals from the images?  It looks most likely to be a publicity/rehearsal photograph from one of de Mille’s Broadway shows from the 1950s, but it is hard to make out anyone but de Mille with any certainty in the tiny format.  Maybe you have sharper eyes.

Image credit: NYPL Digital Gallery ID TH 07969

 

Museum Piece?

Installation view of "Lucinda Childs: Dance" exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins. From the Whitney Museum of American Art Web site.

On a recent trip back to New York, I was surprised to come upon the installation, Lucinda Childs: Dance, in the galleries of the Whitney Museum of American Art.  This small exhibition brought together (what are now) archival materials created by choreographer, Lucinda Childs, composer, Philip Glass, and artist, Sol LeWitt, in the process of collaborating on the 1979 piece,  Dance, originally commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  It was easily the most mesmerizing display in the museum at the time.

The restored work itself has been touring recently with a new company of eleven dancers under Childs’s direction and it will receive one more set of performances, from 15-17 October, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.  If you are not able to make it to one of these shows, you can read a thoughtful review of the company’s appearance at New York’s Joyce Theater by Evan Namerow on the blog, Dancing Perfectly Free.  If you happen to be in New York, you can view the installation at the Whitney through the 8th November.

 

Somethin’s Happening in San Francisco

Album cover image for the Jefferson Starship's "Blows Against the Empire"

The Museum of Performance and Design opens a major exhibition today tracing the vibrant Bay Area rock and roll scene, circa 1969-1973.

From the MSD Web site:

Co-curators Melissa Leventon and Alec Palao evoke this rich era using a wealth of rarely seen footage, posters, images, and costume from private and other public collections and the artists themselves.  Completing the picture is rarely heard audio, some of it drawn from the archive of vintage KSAN recordings recently added to MPD’s permanent collection.

The exhibition runs from September 25, 2009-August 2010, so there should be  ample opportunity for a trip to San Francisco.  Have you seen the stars tonight?

 

The calla lillies are in bloom once again

 

Brochure for the current exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

While the exhibit devoted to Serge Diaghilev continues at the first floor Oenslager Gallery at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, downstairs in its Astor Gallery is a lovely selection of materials from its recently acquired and processed Katherine Hepburn Papers. 

The Hepburn heirs divided the papers into two collections based on her stage and movie careers, the former going to the New York Public Library and the latter going to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles.  Nevertheless, the division between her two vocations is not nearly so neat and her papers at NYPL contain many materials devoted to her motion picture activities.  When combined with the Library’s own film holdings, the picture that emerges is a rounded one. 

In chronological order the exhibit goes through the major segments of her career, highlighting her little-known early stage appearances.  In addition to many photographs (both publicity and candid), there are many magazines (as the exhibit notes state) which, at the outset of her film career, tried to reconcile Hepburn’s unusual looks with then-current ideas of beauty, sometimes resulting in images in which one strains to see a resemblance to the actress.

Here is presented a very different side of Hepburn.  On stage and in costume, she holds herself both regally and sensually depending on the dramatic situation.  It is a pity that with rare and late exceptions (such as the excerpt from the musical Coco, broadcast as part of the Tony Awards of 1970) there are no filmed records of Hepburn on stage.  Such is the ephemeral nature of the performer’s art.  Yet with ample documentation of scripts, letters, photographs and programs, one can get a sense of how Hepburn commanded a stage.  As Bob Taylor, the former curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Division stated in a video, these materials show part of Hepburn’s career that is often overlooked.

It is a fascinating trove:  there are a loads of letters, annotated scripts and documents.  One gets the sense that Hepburn strived to save materials relevant to her activities.  Apparently not content to simply collect, she frequently made notes on these materials.  So many items, even ephemeral ones, have her annotations, comments, thoughts, or communications, providing a deeper context for each item.  She apparently saved fan letters along with the most trivial of items.  That’s what makes not only the exhibit but her archive so rich:  she kept so many things that, while seemingly ephemeral, played some significant part in her life. 

It’s a lesson to us all on what makes a worthwhile archive: not the mere collection of lots of ephemera, but all of it having an organic connection to its creator/collector.  The result is a vivid picture of not just a performing artist but someone fully engaged with life and the world around her.

 

Sophie Tucker Recordings Reissued

Sheet music cover for "It's All Your Fault," popularized by Sophie Tucker

Interesting piece in yesterday’s New York Times on the release of a new CD (remember those?), Sophie Tucker: Origins of the Red Hot Mama, 1910-1922, which includes fresh digital transfers of some of the singer’s earliest recordings.   You can sample some snippets of these recordings, as well as view a few images from one of the several Sophie Tucker collections held by the various divisions of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Image credit: NYPL Digital Gallery ID# G98C170_001

 

Two Reviews of NYPL Diaghilev Show

Portrait of Lydia Lopokova from color brochure advertising Ballets Russes 1916-1917 American tour

For those of us who can’t be there right now, the appearance of a couple of reviews of the current exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Diaghilev’s Theater of Marvels,  recently made us pick up our ears.  One is an overview, by Julie Bloom, in The Paper of Record, complete with the by-now-expected “multimedia” feature, which also includes information on some additional, upcoming Diaghilev tribute events in the New York area.  The other, which admittedly did more to thaw the frozen cockles of our heart, was a blog post by Oregon Ballet Theatre soloist, Adrian Fry, recounting a recent whirlwind weekend in New York, in which, along with taking class and checking out dancewear, he found the time to visit the Diaghilev show (and also tracked down a Manhattan venue that served Stumptown coffee).

We love to see stories about performers and practitioners actually using libraries and archives!  We also love coffee!  When in Portland (and even sometimes in Seattle) we enjoy the occasional visit to  Stumptown, but when in New York, we often can be found at Café Grumpy.  Counting the days now!

Image credit: NYPL Digital Gallery ID# BALRUSSE_BR01

 

Reminder: Session 605, “Saving De Niro’s Boxing Trunks” Tomorrow Morning

Just a reminder that more Performing Arts Roundtable goodness awaits you tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM with the program, Saving De Niro’s Boxing Trunks: Sustaining Performing Arts Archives Collaboratively. The featured panelists, Helen Adair (Harry Ransom Center), Karen Nickeson (New York Public Library), and Libby Smigel (Dance Heritage Coalition) will discuss recent projects that have addressed 21st-century cataloging, preservation, and fair use.

Those of you who attended Wednesday’s PAR meeting had a chance to get up close and personal with said boxing trunks.  For another glimpse of the De Niro collection, you can watch this YouTube video partly narrated by Helen:

Stay tuned for more!

 

Performing Arts Roundtable Meeting at HRC

Window into Meeting Room at HRC

Apologies for the picture.  I remembered I had my camera with me this time around, but, unfortunately, due to understandable security issues, we all had to relinquish our personal belongings before entering the meeting room at the Harry Ransom Center.  So I had to be content with taking a shot of the window of the room upon exiting (and if you were here you would understand why I wouldn’t want to take the time to snap a picture out of doors in the midday sun).    But at least you can catch a glimpse of one of the scepters used in the Robert De Niro film, The Score.  At least I think it was that film, although the plot synopsis does not make a scepter seem a necessary accessory — please correct me if I’m wrong.  At any rate, it was from a De Niro movie I’m sure I have never seen.

Reproduction of Walter Plunkett burgundy ball gown for "Gone with the Wind," David O. Selznick Archive, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin

This curiosity was just one of the many treasures from the HRC collections brought out by our host, associate curator in charge of performing arts collections, Helen Adair.  Other items included a Shakespeare first folio, one of Marlon Brando’s address books, an early draft of  Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, a Gershwin score, and, perhaps most thrillingly one of Walter Plunkett’s Scarlett O’Hara costumes designed for actress Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind. Unfortunately, the famous “curtain dress” was being viewed by another visiting group, but we got to see the no less dramatic “scarlet woman” gown up close.

At the business meeting proper, the new Performing Arts Roundtable leaders were announced: Andrew Wentink will be the new co-chair and Leilani Dawson joins the steering committee.  Many thanks to them for their willingness to serve and a special thanks must go to outgoing co-chair Susan Brady for all her hard work in organizing the Austin program.

 

SAA2009: Performing Arts Roundtable Meets Today

The annual business meeting of the SAA Performing Arts Roundtable occurs this afternoon from 1:00-3:00 at the Harry Ransom Center on the campus of the University of Texas, Austin.

As it’s going to be even hotter today, taking the bus or a cab over to the Ransom is a definite must.  In addition to conducting business (bring your ideas!), attendees will be treated to a special tour of the collection by curator Helen Adair.

Drink lots of water, slather on that sunscreen, and consider a hat…

 

SAA2008: Session 406, Part II

I didn’t see many bats tonight (and I wasn’t the only one), but there’s always tomorrow.  With Big and Carrie gracing my television screen, now seems an opportune to continue the recapitulation of last year’s meeting.

Don’t let Archival Outlook fool you.  For those in the know, the tango lesson during the second half of the session, Getting to the Heart of Performance was far from “unexpected.”  Andrew Wentink was on hand to introduce Stanford dance scholar, Richard Powers, who discussed the early history of the Argentine tango and its adoption/adaptation in various countries.  Richard then demonstrated a 1916 version (I believe, no notes at hand) with his frequent partner, Joan Walton and invited meeting attendees to participate.  Which they did.  We have a sampling of photographs on the aforementioned Flickr site, but you should also check out a brief moment on Youtube: