Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Description

1. 2 sound discs (ca. 81 min.) : digital, stereo; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

1. Part 1, disc 1 (ca. 56 min.). Robert Dunn speaks with Don McDonagh about working with Martha Graham; the 1959-1960 revivals of dances, including Clytemnestra, Diversion of angels, Embattled garden, etc.; working in the wings during the 1961-1962 season, prompting Graham during Acrobats of God due to her heavy alcohol use; the amount of alcohol Graham would drink in a day; his belief that Graham was a suppressed homosexual; Geordie Graham, and dancing with Ruth St. Denis; working on the set of Alcestis, including plots, scenery, sets, etc.; Graham's relationship to Bertram Ross and other male dancers; Graham's treatment of Ross with dignity as a person, but not as a dancer; his belief that Graham respected Paul Taylor's dancing; Graham's personality; Graham's treatment of men and women in the company; working with George Balanchine on Mary Queen of Scots, and the fact that Graham would work with the ballet dancers; Graham's age, and her ability to hide it.
2. Part 1, disc 2 (ca. 25 min.). Robert Dunn speaks with Don McDonagh about Martha Graham, and her relations with other choreographers; his belief that Graham was isolated by her own legend; Graham's agelessness made her exist in a separate world; Graham's interest in reading and books, including a collection of Spanish mystics, and yoga; the way in which Graham responded to adversity; Graham's musical sense; Louis Horst's influence on Graham, including music and dance phrasing; the fact that Horst would compose the music after a dance was created; counterpoint phrasing in dance composition; Horst's influence on her creative decisions; the fact that Graham needed motivation, especially when her own inspirational impulses had left her; letters written between Graham and Craig Barton, and the relationship they had [abrupt end].

Subject

1. Ross, Bertram
2. Graham, Martha > Influence
3. Dunn, Robert > Interviews
4. Graham, Martha > Acrobats of God
5. Horst, Louis
6. Alcestis (Choreographic work : Graham)
7. Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance

Call number

1. *MGZTL 4-2536

Note

1. Interview with Robert Dunn conducted by Don McDonagh on July 7, 1971.
2. Each disc ends abruptly.
3. Open as of August 22, 2012.

Funding (note)

1. Recording was preserved through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Source (note)

1. Don McDonagh;

Author

1. Dunn, Robert. Interviewee

Title

1. Interview with Robert Dunn [sound recording].

Imprint

1. 1971.

Funding

1. Recording was preserved through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Local note

1. Archive orig. : *MGZTCO 3-2536, nos. 1-2
2. Dubbing master : *MGZTD 4-2536, nos. 1-2

Source

1. Gift; Don McDonagh; 2007

Added author

1. McDonagh, Don. Donor
2. Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Research call number

1. *MGZTL 4-2536 sound disc