Research Catalog

Title

Interview with David Gordon and Valda Setterfield. June 11, 2012.

Author

Setterfield, Valda

Publication

2012

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Gordon, David, 1936-2022
• Gordon, Ain

Description

2 compact discs (approximately one hour and 39 minutes ) : digital; 4 3/4 in. +

Summary

• Disc 1, approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. David Gordon and Valda Setterfield speak with their son, Ain Gordon about how David has used his family members in his work, in particular his mixing of real and fictitious elements; Setterfield's thoughts on the difficulty of disentangling her actual self from the fictitious version of herself in David's work; more on the blurring of reality and fiction with respect to family relationships, as for example in The mysteries and what's so funny; Setterfield's feelings about David's work, Dorothy and Eileen; an anecdote about the work's performance by Margaret Hoeffel and Keith Marshall; how Setterfield's roles in David's works disrupt her technical skills and aesthetic qualities, for example as in her role as a strip teaser in Random breakfast; how her performance in this work evolved; Setterfield's car accident and David's work The chair dance; when David began using Setterfield as herself in his works, including how this compared with her experience as a dancer in the [Merce] Cunningham [Dance] Company; more on The chair dance including its role as a milestone in David's use of text; his work The mysteries [and what's so funny] including David's and Setterfield's thoughts on leaving the duet form; more on The chair dance, in particular the process of its creation; David's work Times four; more on The mysteries [and what's so funny] and leaving the duet form; David and Ain's collaborative work The family business including its origins; Setterfield's thoughts on her role in this work; the creative process from Ain's and David's view; the relationship of motion pictures and film-making to David's work, for example as in Framework.
• Disc 2, approximately 29 minutes. David Gordon and Valda Setterfield speak with Ain Gordon about the direction of David's choreography after returning to New York, including his work Autobiography of a liar; his return to the duet form; his work The long walk; his work Private lives of dancers including how this led to his use of characters from other people's works; sources of David's artistic imagination and its form of expression; David's and Setterfield's collaborative process including the dynamic interplay of the reality of their personal relationship and its portrayal in David's work such as in The beginning of the end of...; Setterfield's view of her possibilities and limitations as a performer; more on the interplay of their actual relationship and its expression on stage; differences between David's and Setterfield's views of life.

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.

Subjects

• Gordon, David, 1936-2022
• Audiotapes > Setterfield, V
• Gordon, Ain
• Setterfield, Valda
• Chair dance (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Mysteries and what's so funny? (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Audiotapes > Gordon, D
• Beginning of the end of the... (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Random breakfast (Choreographic work : Gordon)
• Family business (Theater piece : Gordon, A. and Gordon, D.)

Note

• Interview with David Gordon and Valda Setterfield conducted by Ain Gordon on June 11, 2012 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City as part of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division's Oral History Project.
• For transcript see: *MGZMT 3-2921.
• Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

• Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Funding (note)

• This interview was made possible 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.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2921

OCLC

892912058

Author

Setterfield, Valda, interviewee.

Title

Interview with David Gordon and Valda Setterfield. June 11, 2012.

Production

2012

Type of Content

text

spoken word

Type of Medium

unmediated

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

volume

Event

Recorded for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2012, June 11 New York, N.Y.

Funding

This interview was made possible 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.

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Added Author

Gordon, David, 1936-2022, interviewee.

Gordon, Ain, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2921

*MGZMT 3-2921