About Digital Collections
Browse
Search only public domain materials
Search Browse About
Search only public domain materials
Items Collections Divisions
Digital Collections Using Images Using Data
Items Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography

Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography

More Details Cite This Item

Library division & collection with this item:

LIBRARY DIVISION
Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound

  • Lincoln Center 25th anniversary
  • Piney woods money mama
  • Polish music history
  • Kamernyĭ Orkestr Akademicheskogo Teatra opery i baleta goroda Kazani
  • On the picket line
  • Signature
  • Wynton Marsalis
  • Leonard Bernstein in Salzau, 1987
  • Lewis Archibald interviews Ingrid Bergman, 1973
  • M'loch
  • Me and Juliet
  • Edison white wax "Perfected" era cylinders
  • The Mapleson Cylinders
  • Leida Snow reports on New York City Salutes Theater Week
  • Arthur Bell interviews Rosalind Russell, 1974-09-23
Previous Next

COLLECTION
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials

This Item

Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography

View this item elsewhere:

Title
Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography
Names
Merce Cunningham Dance Company (Associated name)
Cunningham, Merce (Speaker)
Collection

Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials

Dates / Origin
Date Created: 1966-10
Library locations
Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound
Shelf locator: *LT-7-A 2360
Topics
Cunningham, Merce
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Summerspace (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
Choreography
Genres
Lectures
Notes
Content: This recording seems to be a rehearsal of a lecture by Merce Cunningham about his choreography, to be given at an unspecified date and location.
Content: Title, location and date provided by cataloger based on audition and handwritten note on the original container.
Content: Handwritten note on original container: "L/Dem ; Stockholm ; October 1966".
Venue: Recorded in Stockholm, Sweden, 1966 October.
Acquisition: Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
Physical Description
Audiotape reel
Extent: 1 audiotape reel (22 minutes) : analog, half track, mono ; 5 in.
Sound quality is good.
Description
Merce Cunningham speaks in short statements about various topics, followed by short silent pauses: a brief example of his choreographic choices when he starts a new piece; [a] Tuesday rehearsal of Summerspace and the difficulty of dancers' execution of certain movements, especially running; his [Merce Cunningham Dance] Company's assessment of the various conditions of performance spaces while touring, including the set-up of the pianos; briefly, his choreographic philosophies; his response to a recent Rockefeller report on the financial state of dance; brief observation of [a] Thursday rehearsal and precision in dance; the audience response to his Company's performance in Chandigarh, [Punjab]; his reply to students that seek to study dance technique with him; a brief anecdote about a conversation that Cunningham had at a party; his composition class, from the previous summer, and their use of chance methods; [recording break]; his Company's residency at Connecticut College in the summer of 1958, including teaching classes and rehearsing his Antic Meet, and Summerspace; his intentions behind the title and some of the movements for Summerspace; more on rehearsing Summerspace during the residency including the choreographic structures and chance methods that he devised to make use of the ballroom rehearsal space; his numbering system for the movements in Summerspace; his attention to individual dancers' pathways in Summerspace and the experience of assembling the dancers in the piece; the premiere of Summerspace and his perception of the audience response.
Type of Resource
Sound recording
Languages
English
Identifiers
RLIN/OCLC: 880587452
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b20209247
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 447972d0-b3fa-0133-7e74-3c07547a230f
Rights Statement
This item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Item timeline of events

  • 1966: Created
  • 2026: Found by you!
  • 2027

MLA Format

Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, The New York Public Library. "Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1966. https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/46126870-b3fa-0133-4873-3c07547a230f

Chicago/Turabian Format

Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, The New York Public Library. "Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed October 6, 2026. https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/46126870-b3fa-0133-4873-3c07547a230f

APA Format

Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, The New York Public Library. (1966). Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography Retrieved from https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/46126870-b3fa-0133-4873-3c07547a230f

Wikipedia Citation

<ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/46126870-b3fa-0133-4873-3c07547a230f | title= (sound recording) Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography, (1966)|author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library |accessdate=October 6, 2026 |publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations}}</ref>

Merce Cunningham speaks about his choreography