Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Perron, Wendy

Description

1. 8 streaming files (approximately 5 hours and 25 minutes) : digital +

Summary

1. Streaming audio file 1, September 22, 2016 (approximately 51 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about her early dance training, in Kentucky; her time with the Louisville Ballet including her friendship with Deborah Wisehart; her experience with anti-semitism when growing up; reasons she went to Bennington College; her time at Bennington College including her initial struggles, socially and with modern dance; her feeling that she never found her own "movement voice" there; her site-specific, immersive-theater work at Jennings Mansion (the music building at Bennington College); her political activities; an anecdote about performing with Judy (Judith) Dunn's group; after graduation, focusing on her cello playing, with members of the Finckel family.
2. Streaming audio file 2, September 22, 2016 (approximately 30 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about touring the United States, playing cello in a blue grass music group with the Finckels; their time in California and subsequent travels as part of a caravan; her frequent visits to Louisville to see her mother and to Bennington, Vermont; her trip to Italy with the Finckels including an anecdote about almost marrying a man she met there; returning to California where she busked as a tap dancer; creating stained glass objects including her winning a prize for her work; learning photography at a workshop taught by Robert Frank including an anecdote about Frank's and his wife's evaluation of her work.
3. Streaming audio file 3, September 23, 2016 (approximately 45 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about being born in a Jewish hospital in Louisville, Kentucky; (briefly) her work as a disco queen; (briefly) working on contact improvisation with Nita Little; Lisa Nelson and their video work together including Postcards and Abondanza in the air; her use of a tire in her work; her work with Fred Holland including Silent prey; her diagnosis of MS [Multiple sclerosis] and how this affected her life and her work.
4. Streaming audio file 4, September 23, 2016 (approximately 51 minutes). Cathy Weis continues to speak with Wendy Perron about her diagnosis of MS [Multiple sclerosis] and how this affected her life and her work; she tells an anecdote about David Bradshaw and Mad Brook farm (in Vermont); she speaks about Simone Forti's work Censor; how she came to make her own first work, in Amsterdam (Netherlands), entitled DUB; connecting with Annie Iobst, Jennifer Miller, and others in their circle; her sense of humor as expressed for example in performances with Jennifer Miller in Prague [in the Czech Republic]; her use of fractured images and various sources of inspiration for this style; her use of surprise in her work; her work made with Scotty [Scott Heron] entitled Bad spot hurts including the Foley sound provided by Steve Hamilton; working with Diane Madden including as compared to working with Scott Heron; her work Pupa, with Jennifer Monson.
5. Streaming audio file 5, October 25, 2016 (approximately 48 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about LIPS [Live Internet Performing Structure; works created in collaboration with artists in Prague in the Czech Republic] including how it grew out of her graduate studies at Bennington College where Ruben Puentedura introduced her to the internet; her use of two cameras, including in collaboration with Jennifer Miller; the methods she developed for working on projects with people in foreign countries while she was in the United States; how the unreliability of the internet at that time affected outcomes; her feelings in general about how she uses technology; dancers involved in her Prague project, including Lionel Popkin and Sara Rudner; her use of animation in the Prague and Macedonia project; her work Gravity twins; her concern with what people look at [on stages] and why; her Pupa piece, performed by Jennifer Monson, and its use of Foley sound created by Steve Hamilton; working with (the late) Fred Holland; an early work that used face-doubling, with K.J. Holmes and Ishmael Houston-Jones; working with disabled people in the Buen Viaje Dance Company, in Albuquerque (New Mexico); her singing; her participation in Jennifer Miller's [political performance group] Circus amok and other "carnivalesque" activities in which she participated; filming Steve Paxton when he was in his fifties; briefly, her working methods when creating a new work.
6. Streaming audio file 6, October 25, 2016 (approximately 45 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about her work The dunkin' booth; her series Electric haiku including her [2005] work [Electric haiku: calm as custard] in which she worked with Scott Heron to create images, and Steve Hamilton, who created the sound; her joy in creating these works; an Electric haiku that Ruben Puentedura helped her with, including Zany's [Zane Frazer's] role; working on an Electric haiku with the artist Ksenia; how she came to buy Simone Forti's loft in New York City; her experimenting over the years with her leg brace.
7. Streaming audio file 7, November 15, 2016 (approximately 38 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about her [video] camera, in particular how she has adapted a GoPro camera to her requirements; (very briefly) Annie Iobst and Ishmael Houston-Jones; her series, Sundays on Broadway, which she hosts at her loft, including its origins and development; she indicates where some other artists in the building lived; she speaks about telling people's fortunes in her loft as her character Madame Xenogamy; her attempts to archive her body of work; the damage and disruption caused by a fire in the building; the difficulty in determining the size of her film collection; reasons she enjoys hosting the Sundays on Broadway series; reasons she does not particularly want feedback for these programs; The building show, her upcoming production, site-specific to her bridling.
8. Streaming audio file 8, November 15, 2016 (approximately 17 minutes). Cathy Weis speaks with Wendy Perron about her archival project including her goal of using the project to trace the development of ideas; her unusual position as one who has been on both sides of the camera; her use of FileMaker Pro as an organizational tool; the subjective quality of film as a means to record dance and hence the unfortunate reliance of funding committees on filmed performances to determine awards; an example of an idea she has tracked; her very warm feelings for the dance community and young dancers of today.

Alternative title

1. Dance oral history project
2. Dance audio archive

Subject

1. Weis, Cathy > Interviews
2. Holland, Fred, 1951-2016
3. Heron, Scott
4. Monson, Jennifer
5. Miller, Jennifer, 1961-
6. Hamilton, Steve (Film editor)
7. Perron, Wendy
8. Forti, Simone
9. Bennington College
10. Electric haiku: Calm as custard (Choreographic work : Weis)
11. Abondanza in the air (Choreographic work : Nelson and Weis)
12. Bad spot hurts like mad (Choreographic work : Weis)
13. Dunkin' booth (Choreographic work : Weis)
14. Dance > Political aspects
15. Dance > Production and direction
16. Artistic collaboration
17. Dance archives
18. Group work in art
19. Dance and technology
20. Dance in motion pictures, television, etc
21. Dancers with disabilities
22. Site-specific art

Genre/Form

1. Sound recordings.
2. Oral histories.

Call number

1. *MGZMT 3-3358

Note

1. Interview with Cathy Weis conducted by Wendy Perron, on September 22 and 23, October 25, and November 15, 2016, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (September 22 and 23 and October 25, 2016) and at Cathy Weis' home in New York City (November 15, 2016), for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project.
2. For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3358.
3. As of March 2023, the audio recording of this interview can be made available at the Library for the Performing Arts by advanced request to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, dance@nypl.org. The audio files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming on site only at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
4. Sound quality is very good.
5. Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

1. Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
2. Permission required.

Funding (note)

1. The creation 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

1. Weis, Cathy, interviewee.

Title

1. Interview with Cathy Weis, 2016.

Imprint

1. 2016.

Type of content

1. spoken word
2. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated
2. audio

Type of carrier

1. online resource
2. volume

Digital file characteristics

1. audio file

Restricted access

1. Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
2. Permission required.

Event

1. Recorded for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts September 22 and 23, October 25, and November 15, 2016 New York (N.Y.)

Funding

1. The creation 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.

Connect to:

Added author

1. Perron, Wendy, interviewer.

Research call number

1. *MGZMT 3-3358