Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Schönberg, Bessie.
2. Owen, Norton.
3. Kopp, Leslie Hansen.
4. DHCA.

Description

1. 4 videocassettes (U-matic, NTSC) (187 min.) : sd., col.; 3/4 in.

Summary

1. Interview intended as an addendum to the oral history by Rose Ann Thom, 1977. Bessie Schönberg looks back upon the years following her retirement from Sarah Lawrence College, particularly the individuals and organizations she has worked with as a teacher of choreographic workshops and composition classes, an artistic adviser, and a mentor.

Donor/Sponsor

1. Gift of Jacob's Pillow.

Subject

1. Grand Central dances (Choreographic work)
2. Duncan, Jeff, 1930-1989
3. Dance
4. Bernhardt, Elise
5. Dance Theatre of Harlem
6. White, David R
7. Site-specific performance
8. Place (London, England)
9. Shook, Karel
10. Wave Hill (New York, N.Y.)
11. Choreographic workshops
12. Nanon, Patricia N
13. Howard, Robin, 1924-1989
14. Tisch School of the Arts
15. Jacob's Pillow School of the Dance
16. Open air performances > United States
17. Brüning, Diane Coburn
18. Sojkowski, Gary
19. Shimotakahara, David
20. Choreography > Study and teaching
21. Bird, Bonnie
22. Yard (Chilmark, Mass.)
23. Juilliard School > Dance Division
24. Dance Theater Workshop
25. Dance teachers
26. Thompson, Liz (Elizabeth Lauter)
27. Laban Centre for Movement and Dance
28. Wright, Charles Brooks, 1961-
29. Performance spaces
30. Dancing in the Streets/USA
31. Video
32. Temple University
33. Harkarvy, Benjamin
34. Interviews

Genre/Form

1. Interviews.
2. Dance.
3. Video.

Contents

1. Cassette 1 (ca. 48 min.). Bessie Schönberg discusses her husband Dmitri, who died in 1984, paying tribute to the lessons in craftsmanship he taught her through his avocations of pottery and gardening. She discusses in detail the composition workshops she taught at Dance Theatre of Harlem at the invitation of Karel Shook, and at Dance Theater Workshop under the leadership first of Jeff Duncan and later of David White.
2. Cassette 2 (ca. 57 min.). Schönberg talks about the composition workshop she began at Jacob's Pillow School of the Dance under Liz Thompson's directorship, and the contributions of her accompanist Gary Sojkowski and her colleague Charles Wright. She recalls Bonnie Bird, with whom she danced in the Martha Graham Dance Company, and who invited her to teach at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London, and Robin Howard, founder of The Place in London, where she also taught composition classes.
3. Cassette 3 (ca. 62 min.). Schönberg discusses her role as artistic adviser to various choreographic projects at The Yard in Chilmark, Massachusetts, under the direction of Pat Nanon. After touching upon her current classes in the dance department of the Juilliard School, which she was asked to teach by Benjamin Harkarvy, she describes a choreographic program for recent graduates at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She recalls her first meeting with Elise Bernhardt of Dancing in the Streets/USA, and her involvement in Grand Central dances, which Bernhardt organized at Grand Central Station in New York in 1987. Schönberg also discusses serving as artistic adviser to choreographers participating in Dances at Wave Hill, and as mentor to the young choreographer Diane Coburn Bruning.
4. Cassette 4 (ca. 20 min.). Schönberg continues her discussion of Diane Coburn Bruning and the ballet she created for Joffrey II. She discusses a few of the many workshops she has presented outside of New York, notably at Temple University, in Boston, and with David Shimotakahara's group New Steps in Akron.

Call number

1. *MGZIC 9-5113

Note

1. Title from information provided by donor.

Performer (note)

1. Interviewer: Norton Owen.
2. Interviewee: Bessie Schönberg.

Event (note)

1. Videotaped at Jacob's Pillow, Lee, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1995, by Leslie Kopp.

Title

1. [Interview with Bessie Schönberg] [videorecording]

Imprint

1. 1995.

Country of producing entity

1. U.S.

Performer

1. Interviewer: Norton Owen.
2. Interviewee: Bessie Schönberg.

Event

1. Videotaped at Jacob's Pillow, Lee, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1995, by Leslie Kopp.

Local subject

1. Choreographic workshops.
2. Performance spaces.
3. Open air performances -- United States.
4. Site-specific performance.

Added author

1. Schönberg, Bessie. Interviewee
2. Owen, Norton. Interviewer
3. Kopp, Leslie Hansen. Videographer
4. DHCA.

Research call number

1. *MGZIC 9-5113