Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Ingber, Judith Brin.

Description

1. 5 sound cassettes (6.5 hr.) +

Summary

1. Cassette 1. Recorded February 4, 1997. Mr. Fibich discusses his childhood in Warsaw, Poland; growing up in a Hasidic household; dances linked to religious ceremonies and holidays; the cultural life of 1920s Warsaw; anti-Semitism in Poland; teaching himself about music, theater dance and art; joining the Jung Theatre; his parents' restaurant; studying dance with Judith Berg; escaping Nazi-occupied Poland; performing with Judith Berg's company; Berg's choreography; developing movement from shapes in the Hebrew alphabet; the use of oppositional movement in Hasidic dance; the influence of Doris Humphrey on his development as a choreographer; his choreography for vaudeville; dance collaborations with Berg based on Jewish poems and songs.
2. Cassette 2. February 5, 1997. [A persistent jackhammer noise occurs 20 minutes into side A.] Mr. Fibich describes his escape from Nazi-occupied Poland; being arrested when he tried to return to Warsaw; dances by Judith Berg, including Cry of Israel and Mahatenes Tanz; the stage acts of the Bialystok Theater of Miniature; touring Russia; the German attack on opening night in Odessa; escaping from Odessa to Ashkhabad (Turkmenian Republic); delivering provisions from the Polish government to refugees in Siberia; his second theatrical tour to Siberia; being hired by the Turkmenian Opera in Ashkhaban; leaving the opera; performing with Tashkent Theatre troupe after liberation.
3. Cassette 3. February 5-6, 1997. Mr. Fibich describes his return to Warsaw after the war; teaching dance in a Warsaw orphanage; opening a Jewish dance school for children; struggling to leave Poland for Israel; meeting and being funded by Bethsabee de Rothschild; receiving a contract from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture to tour the U.S.; his financial and professional struggles in the U.S.; auditioning repertory for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture; his first concert in New York City; performing for Workmen's Circle events; his friendships with Nina Caiserman and Gurit Kadman; performing in Israel; being stigmatized as an "ethnic" dancer; developing choreography from Jewish ritual gestures; and criticizes Jerome Robbins' choreography for Fiddler on the roof.
4. Cassette 4, side A only. February 6, 1997. [Feedback at beginning of cassette.] Mr. Fibich discusses choreographing and performing vaudeville shows in the 1960s; choreographing shows for Broadway; teaching and choreographing for the Jewish Community Center in Chicago; being fired by the Jewish Community Center; returning to New York City; touring his one-man lecture demonstration on the history of Jewish dance; acting in Cafe crown and other English-language plays; performing and teaching in the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland; acting in a French movie about Holocaust survivors; and his health.
5. Cassette 5. February 7, 1997. [Most of this cassette records Fibich and Ingber as they look at and comment on old performance photos and programs. Other topics of discussion are as follows.] Mr. Fibich discusses his tour to South America in 1970; reuniting with his brother-in-law in Israel; performing for Holocaust survivors in Poland after the war; Madeleine Albright's Jewish ancestry; and his "adopted" daughter, Robyn.

Donor/Sponsor

1. Gift of Gertrude Lippincott Trust.

Alternative title

1. Dance Oral History Project.
2. Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

1. Berg, Judith
2. Rothschild, Bethsabée de, Baroness
3. Caiserman, Nina
4. Kadman, Gurit
5. Jewish dance > United States
6. Jewish dance
7. Jews, Polish

Call number

1. *MGZMT 3-2042 (transcript)

Note

1. For transcript, see: *MGZMT 3-2042.
2. Interviewed by Judith Brin Ingber, February 4-7, 1997, at Mr. Fibich's New York City apartment.

Access (note)

1. Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Author

1. Fibich, Felix. Interviewee

Title

1. Interview with Felix Fibich [sound recording]

Imprint

1. 1997.

Local note

1. Preservation master cassette: *MGZTCO 3-2042.
2. Archival transcript: *MGZMTO 3-2042.

Restricted access

1. Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Local subject

1. Musical comedies. Fiddler on the roof.
2. Jewish dance, Hasidic.
3. Audiotapes -- Fibich, F.

Added author

1. Ingber, Judith Brin. Interviewer

Research call number

1. *MGZMT 3-2042 (transcript)
2. *MGZTC 3-2042 (sound cassette)