Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Bessie Schoenberg [sound recording]

Author

Schönberg, Bessie.

Publication

1976-77.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Thom, Rose Anne.

Description

9 sound cassettes (29 hrs., 39 min.) : analog, mono.

Summary

• Cassette 1. Bessie Schoenberg discusses her early childhood and art training; Dresden, Germany; her first trip to America; dance classes with Martha Hill; meeting Martha Graham and joining the Graham Company; Graham's technique classes -- Cassette 2. Dancing with Graham; Louis Horst; her injuries and leaving the company; Neighborhood Playhouse classes and productions; teaching at the Henry St. Settlement; the Bennington School of the Dance; Martha Hill; Stokowski's revival of Le sacre du printemps; Bennington -- Cassette 3. Bennington; developing her own approach to teaching; Martha Graham; Norman and Ruth Lloyd; John Martin; Helen Tamiris; Agnes de Mille; Anna Sokolow; José Limón; Sybil Shearer; Lincoln Kirstein; Lloyd Shaw -- Cassette 4. Folk dancing with Lloyd Shaw; the Bennington School of the Dance at Mills College; Briarcliff Junior College; developing a teaching philosophy; the New Dance League; the early years of Sarah Lawrence College -- Cassette 5. Reforming the Sarah Lawrence dance department; her composition classes; her accompanists; the "Friday program"; personal life; collaborative theater productions; Sarah Lawrence Dance Group's Carnegie Hall debut; teaching technique to college students -- Cassette 6. Principles of teaching; various productions at Sarah Lawrence; teaching composition; rhythm; advanced composition classes --
• Cassette 7. The projects class; Ruth Lloyd's music classes for dancers; classes in teaching dance; the graduate dance program; ballet, dance notation and production classes -- Cassette 8. Bringing men to Sarah Lawrence for dance and theatre productions; co-education; guest technique teachers; the Performing Arts Building; former students, including Carolyn Adams, Meredith Monk, Lucinda Childs, Elizabeth Keen, Beverly Emmons -- Cassette 9-10. Former students Alice Reyes and Stuart Hopps; the Connecticut College American Dance Festival; teaching dance to Juilliard singers; her family's experiences during World War II; her husband, Dimitri Varley; retirement; designing dance departments for colleges; other dance activities; the 1977 revival of Primitive mysteries.

Donor/Sponsor

National Initiative to Preserve American Dance.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subjects

• Neighborhood Playhouse (New York, N.Y.)
• Shearer, Sybil
• Monk, Meredith
• Lloyd, Ruth
• Bennington School of the Dance
• Hill, Martha
• Dance > Study and teaching
• Choreography
• Audiotapes > Schoenberg, B
• Dance > Study and teaching (Higher)
• Martha Graham Dance Company
• Graham, Martha
• Horst, Louis
• Sarah Lawrence College > Dance Group
• Lloyd, Norman, 1909-1980
• Modern dance > Technique
• American Dance Festival
• Shaw, Lloyd, 1890-1958

Note

• Recorded Dec. 1 & 8, 1976; Jan. 12; Feb. 23; Mar. 9, 16 & 30; Apr. 6 & 20; May 11; June 6, 8, 13, 15, 21, 22, 27; and July 1, 6, 13, 1977 in Bronxville, N.Y.
• For transcript of interview see: *MGZMT 5-1018.

Call Number

*MGZTC 3-1018

OCLC

NYPY887000203-R

Author

Schönberg, Bessie. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Bessie Schoenberg [sound recording]

Imprint

1976-77.

Local Note

Archival original: *MGZTO 5-1018; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 10 reels (5 in.)

Dubbing master: *MGZTD 10-1018; 7 1/2 in. per sec.; 10 in. reel; polyester.

Preservation funded by the National Initiative to Preserve American Dance.

Local Subject

Dance -- Study and teaching (Higher)

Modern dance -- Technique.

Audiotapes -- Schoenberg, B.

Added Author

Thom, Rose Anne. Interviewer

Research Call Number

*MGZTC 3-1018