Streaming file 1, Dec. 28, 1978, and Jan. 12, 1979: Begins abruptly; Merce Cunningham speaks with David Vaughan on Dec. 28, 1978 about a choreographic note for RainForest (1968) in his book Changes: notes on choreography (New York, Something Else Press); he speaks about the entrances and sections for his original cast of [Merce Cunningham Dance Company] dancers in RainForest: Carolyn Brown, Barbara Lloyd [Dilley], Sandra Neels, Albert Reid, Gus Solomons jr; edits he made to RainForest for filming the Dance in America program; inspirations for RainForest; speaking with Jasper Johns about using Andy Warhol's pillows in RainForest; an anecdote on speaking with David Tudor about the music for RainForest; the costumes for RainForest including an anecdote about Carolyn Brown's costume; choreographing and rehearsing RainForest and Walkaround time (1968) during a residency in Buffalo, New York; Cunningham tells an anecdote about the Frank Stella set for Scramble (1967) during the performances at Buffalo; he tells an anecdote about the dinner party when Johns asked Marcel Duchamp to collaborate on a work with Cunningham, Walkaround time (1968); he speaks about the set design for Walkaround time by Duchamp and its construction by Johns; Cunningham speaks about some of his references to Duchamp within Walkaround time, including the entr'acte; more on the choreography for Walkaround time; the music for Walkaround time, David Berhman's For nearly an hour (1968); he speaks briefly about dancer Jeff Slayton; Cunningham speaks about the filming of Assemblage (1968) in Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco; the choreographic ordering system, utilizing playing cards, for his Canfield (1969); some of the movement from Assemblage that he re-used in Canfield, including an anecdote on Robert Swinston and Brynar Mehl; more on how he determined the order, by chance, for each performance of Canfield; Neels' notes on Canfield as well as the lack of filmed documentation of it; his interest in using sections from Canfield for his Events; [brief break]; begins abruptly, Cunningham tells an anecdote about his inspiration for Canfield while visiting Marcel and "Teeny" [Alexina] Duchamp on a tour; [ca. 34:40, end of Dec. 28, 1978 interview]; [Jan. 12, 1979, begins abruptly]; Cunningham speaks about Bruce Nauman's set for Tread (1970), consisting of industrial fans; he speaks about how Second hand (1970) is an expansion of his solo Idyllic song (1944); he speaks about using John Cage's Cheap imitation (1969), an arrangement of Erik Satie's Socrate (1917-1918), for Second hand; more on the choreography for Second hand; ends abruptly.
Streaming file 2, Jan. 12, and Mar. 16, 1979: Begins abruptly; Merce Cunningham continues to speak with David Vaughan on Jan. 12, 1979 about the choreography for his Second hand (1970); he tells a brief anecdote about taking M.C. Richards to a Town Hall performance of Socrate; they speak about the color spectrum of Jasper Johns' costumes for Second hand; Cunningham describes some of the cameras used for filming with Charles Atlas, as well as some of the challenges they face while filming dance; Cunningham speaks about his Signals (1970), including its sections, original cast, and the chance methods used to order the choreography; more on the costumes and chairs in the set design; some of the signals given by the dancers as cues during performances of Signals; Cunningham speaks about his Objects (1970) and the set design by Neil Jenny that consists of the objects referenced by the title; briefly, his re-use of a section from Septet (1953) in Objects; he lists works that he'd like to reconstruct; [ca. 22:37, end of Jan. 12 interview]; [ca. 24:12, Mar. 16, 1979, begins abruptly]; Cunningham speaks about taking tap dance classes during his brief stint at George Washington University following his high school graduation; staying with his brother while at George Washington University, seeing Vaudeville and exhibition ballroom performances while there, and returning to Centralia, [Washington], the following year; they speak briefly about the duet with Dorothy Herrmann that was choreographed by Bonnie Bird and performed at Mills College; they speak about the 1939 article by John Cage, "Goal: New music, new dance"; Cunningham speaks about writing to Cage to ask him to compose the music for Credo in us (1942) and Jean Erdman's nerves about Cage's delayed response; Cunningham speaks about how his choreographic explorations paralleled those of Cage's artistic ideas; they speak about Nancy Wilson Ross's lecture on Dadaism and Zen [Buddhism] at Cornish College of the Arts that impacted Cage; Cunningham speaks briefly about the inspiration and the movement qualities in his Open road (1947); Vaughan quotes a review of Cunningham's Sixteen dances for soloist and company of three (1951); Cunningham speaks about his Dromenon (1947), including its complexity and similarities to Second hand (1970); they list the original cast of women in Dromenon, including the ways their dance training with Martha Graham flavored the movement; they speak briefly about Cunningham performing with Donald McKayle in Jean Erdman's Solstice (1950); ends abruptly.