Four streaming audio files (approximately four hours): digital
Summary
Streaming file 1, November 24, 1978 (approximately 46 minutes). Stanley Holden speaks with Tobi Tobias about meeting Charlie Chaplin and his admiration for him as an artist; his family and his childhood; his name change, from Waller to Holden; on being a character dancer; choreographing; his tap dancing classes; his children; ballet lessons and the stigma at that time of being a male ballet dancer.
Streaming file 2, November 24 and 25, 1978 (approximately 47 minutes). Stanley Holden speaks with Tobi Tobias about preparing for the RAD [Royal Academy of Dance] examinations; more on the difficulty of being a male dancer at the time; seeing his first ballet, Frederick Ashton's Façade; joining the Sadler's Wells Ballet [later the Royal Ballet]; Ninette de Valois as a person and as an artist and director [at approximately 27:46 minutes, the November 24 session ends, and the first November 25 session begins]; partnering; preparing for and developing a role, for example the Widow Simone in [Frederick Ashton's] La fille mal gardée and Dr. Coppélius in Coppélia.
Streaming file 3, November 25, 1978 (approximately 39 minutes). Stanley Holden speaks with Tobi Tobias about his approach to travesty roles, for example, the Widow Simone; Robert Helpmann in [Ninette de Valois'] The prospect before us; more on the role of Dr. Coppélius; his career at the Sadler's Wells Ballet/ Royal Ballet including interruptions for military service and injury; John Cranko, as an artist and as a person, including an anecdote about his revue Cranks.
Streaming file 4, November 25, 1978 (approximately 46 minutes.) Stanley Holden speaks with Tobi Tobias about the role of the Widow Simone in La fille mal gardée; working with Frederick Ashton including the difficulty of taking on a role created on another dancer, for example Bottom [created on Alexander Grant] in Dream; Ashton's Enigma variations and his working methods; Ashton as a person; the role of the Chief of Police in Leonide Massine's Mademoiselle Angot; touring with the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet; the different atmosphere in different theaters; the nature of character dancing and why it is so difficult to teach; more on his interpretation of Dr. Coppélius [ends abruptly].
Interview with Stanley Holden conducted by Tobi Tobias on November 24 and 25, 1978 in Brooklyn, New York, backstage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, for the Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Sound quality is good. The recording is marred by occasional extraneous noise.
Access (note)
Patrons may access streaming audio only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Funding (note)
The conservation 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.
Author
Holden, Stanley, interviewee.
Title
Interview with Stanley Holden , 1978
Production
1978
Type of content
spoken word
Type of medium
audio
Type of carrier
online resource
Digital file characteristics
audio file
Restricted access
Patrons may access streaming audio only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Event
Recorded by Tobi Tobias 1978, November 24 and 25 Brooklyn (N.Y.)
Funding
The conservation 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.
Original version
Original format: two sound cassettes (approximately four hours); quarter-track; 1.875 ips.; transferred to wav file and streaming file (myd_mgztco31008_v01f01_sc, myd_mgztco31008_v01f02_sc, myd_mgztco31008_v02f01_sc, and myd_mgztco31008_v02f02_sc) formats in 2015.