Research Catalog

Interview with Ella Thompson Moore

Title: Interview with Ella Thompson Moore, 2020 / Conducted remotely by Joselli Audain Deans on November 3, 4, 11, and 24, 2020; Producer: Dance Oral History Project.
Author: Moore, Ella Thompson
Publication: 2020.

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Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections Dance to submit a request in person.	Part 2 of 2	Film, slide, etc.	Supervised use	*MGZMT 3-3498	Performing Arts Research Collections Dance
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections Dance to submit a request in person.	Part 1 of 2	Film, slide, etc.	Supervised use	*MGZMT 3-3498	Performing Arts Research Collections Dance

Details

Additional Authors

Deans, Joselli Audain

Description

5 streaming video files (7 hours; 3 minutes) : sound, color. +

Alternative Title

Dance Oral History Project.
Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

Genre/Form

Video recordings.
Oral histories.
Interviews.

Note

Interview with Ella Thompson Moore (in Brooklyn, N.Y.) conducted remotely by Joselli Audain Deans (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) on November 3, 4, 11, and 24, 2020 for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3498
The video 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 video files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming.
Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Funding (note)

The Dance Oral History Project's 2020 recordings are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3498

OCLC

1501366896

Author

Moore, Ella Thompson, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Ella Thompson Moore, 2020 / Conducted remotely by Joselli Audain Deans on November 3, 4, 11, and 24, 2020; Producer: Dance Oral History Project.

Imprint

2020.

Playing Time

070300

Type of Content

spoken word

two-dimensional moving image

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

video

computer

Type of Carrier

online resource

volume

Digital File Characteristics

video file

Restricted Access

Photography of the transcript permitted for research purposes only.

Event

Recorded for for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2020, November 3, 4, 11, and 24 New York (N.Y.) and Easton, Pennsylvania.

Summary

Streaming file 1, November 3, 2020 (approximately 48 minutes). Ella Thompson Moore speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about her family background beginning with her date and place of birth (May 31, 1929, in Chattanooga, Tennessee); her parents Joelzie Howard Thompson, an Episcopal priest, and Ella Ruth Brown, and her brother Joe Howard; moving frequently in connection with her father's work in the church including to Minnesota where her sister was born; not being allowed to take dance lessons because she was a preacher's daughter; taking piano lessons instead and occasionally substituting for the church organist; other aspects of growing up within the church; finding opportunities to move and dance, for example at day camp and the YMCA; her earliest dance performances, as a peacock and a tree; leaving her high school (in Raleigh, North Carolina) at the end of her junior year when her family moved to Plainfield, New Jersey; focusing on music at her new school; the surprise of her white teachers in Plainfield at what a good education she and her siblings had received at the (segregated) schools in the South; reminiscences of her piano teacher at St. Augustine's University in Raleigh; her unhappy freshman year at Bennett College (in Greensboro, North Carolina); transferring to Howard University in her sophomore year and graduating in 1951; meeting Dr. Maryrose Reeves Allen, the head of physical education, and taking class with her and Erika Thimey; performing in a summer-long show about George Washington commemorating the 100th anniversary of Washington, D.C. including how she came to substitute for Edna Weir in a lead role; the show's choreographer, Myra Kinch, who introduced her to Syvilla Fort and (through Fort) the Katherine Dunham School [founded as Katherine Dunham School of Dance; renamed Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre; now part of the Katherine Dunham School of Arts and Research], which gave her a scholarship. [Ends abruptly but continues on streaming file 2.]

Streaming file 2, November 3, 2020 (approximately 47 minutes). Ella Thompson Moore speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about her time at Howard University including the rigor of the classes especially as compared with the classes at Bennett College; more on her first job, dancing in the show about George Washington including reminiscences of her cousin Lucius Lomax and his wife, who happened to live nearby; moving to New York City to study at Katherine Dunham's school; finding a place to live in New York City, eventually with roommates at the Albert Hotel [Hotel Albert]; her classes and teachers at the Dunham school including Syvilla Fort, Paul Szilard (for ballet), Maggie Newman (for Dunham technique) and Lavinia Williams Yarborough; the inclusion of French Creole and folklore dance in the curriculum; reminiscences of student performances including the presence, typically, of three or four drummers; the inclusion of acting lessons in the curriculum, including mime with Lee and Anna Strasberg; more on Syvilla Fort; other memories of this period including dancing back-up at the Apollo Theater with Count Basie; the diversity in the backgrounds and ethnicities of the people who studied or were otherwise associated with Dunham and her school; her most influential teachers: Maggie Newman and Walter Nicks.

Streaming file 3, November 4, 2020 (approximately one hour and 56 minutes). Ella Thompson Moore speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about Syvilla Fort's assistants, Emile Faustin [phonetic spelling] and Walter Nicks; her experiences during a two-year tour with the company assembled by Nicks [El Ballet Negro de Walter Nicks, in 1953] in Mexico City, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, including her witnessing a very memorable Carnival in Haiti and local religious ceremonies in Cuba; performing with Nicks' company in a shared program [in 1955?] with Nala Najan at the Henry Street Playhouse; Nicks' choreography for the company including his use of Afro-Cuban, folkloric, jazz music, and modern dance elements; performing in Nicks' work Cabildo; (briefly) Nicks' choreographing two "specials" [touring stage productions, in 1956] for Harry Belafonte, the second of which was a minstrel show; (briefly) having to restart her dance career in New York after returning to the United States; Katherine Dunham's work Shango; her husband Charles Moore including their first meeting at the Dunham school and how their relationship developed from friendship to marriage; her life at this time in New York: going to class, rehearsals, and auditions while working at department stores to make ends meet; Charles Blackwell, a Black stage manager for David Merrick, who used his position to steer Moore and other Black dancers to auditions and roles; her experience with racism at auditions; the practice of hiring Black dancers in pairs so that a Black dancer would be partnered with a Black dancer; performing, in effect, as a decorative background for Sammy Davis Jr. on The Ed Sullivan Show and in industrial shows produced by automobile manufacturers; Broadway shows in which she performed including Jamaica, with choreography by Jack Cole; Best foot forward [shows photograph of herself with her dance partner and friend Charles Queenan]; the institutions (including the New Dance Group, and the Katherine Dunham School) and the choreographers (including Donald McKayle, Pearl Primus, Anna Sokolow, Bill [William] Bales, Sophie Maslow, and Mercedes Batista) that she feels made the 1950s a special time for Black dancers and dance; performing in Sokolow's and Maslow's Hanukkah show at Madison Square Garden; Pearl Primus and her choreography for Blackwell, Queenan, and George Mills; Louis Johnson as a dancer; reminiscences of Geoffrey Holder and performing, with her husband Charles, in Holder's Dougla suite [an earlier version of his Dougla], including the elaborate costumes; the musical House of flowers, in particular the production's abuse of the audition process and the resultant action by Actors Equity [Association]; her general appreciation of Actors Equity as a strong and protective union; going to California with Holder to work on a television pilot; some of the other dancers who worked with Holder including Johnson; various other choreographers she remembers from this time including Talley Beatty and his work The road of the Phoebe Snow; more on Johnson including an anecdote about him and Glory Van Scott; more on her work with Holder; working with Alvin Ailey including an anecdote about her having to wear a very cumbersome costume shawl; [shows photographs of herself and others from Copper and brass, dancing with McKayle, and from the show Showboat]; more on Ailey including his unsystematic approach to teaching dance class and her difficulties with the [Lester] Horton technique; Ailey's Revelations including her roles in it; an anecdote about Ailey changing the choreography even as they were performing Gillespiana; [in 1962] touring with Ailey [and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Asia; the tour was sponsored by the United States government and visited Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Australia, and Japan]; the work created by Glen Tetley for Carmen De Lavallade to perform on the tour, in particular the heavy costumes; events of a political nature that she witnessed in Vietnam and Burma; the regular [surgical] mask-wearing by people in public in Japan.

Streaming file 4, November 11, 2020 (approximately one hour and 47 minutes). Ella Thompson Moore speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about her husband Charles Moore including how they first met and the development of their professional and personal relationship; her initial indecision upon his proposing marriage and eventual acceptance, in Brussels (Belgium) where Charles was performing; reasons Jamaica and West Side story were her two favorite shows; her experiences in other shows during this period: The Zulu and the Zayda in which Lou Gosset was the Zayda; Showboat, in a Jones Beach (New York) production; Hallelujah, Baby! with Leslie Uggams, Robert Hooks, and Billy Dee Williams; Kicks and Company [Kicks & Co.; directed by Lorraine Hansberry and choreographed by Donald McKayle and Walter Nicks] including the numerous out-of-town previews and a performance anecdote; getting married in Paris (France) where she and Moore were performing (in Free and Easy, choreographed by McKayle with Quincy Jones as the musical director) and again, in an Episcopal ceremony in the United States; returning home to New York where she returned to working at department stores and a greeting card company between theatrical engagements; more on Johnson including a dance he choreographed for her; more on Ailey's Revelations and Ailey's choreographic process including his use of mental images to explain his intentions to the dancers; Ailey's interest in preserving modern dance works; Beryl McBurnie and her efforts to preserve Trinidadian dance traditions; more on Holder including his use of deep plies in his individual dougla [from Dougla suite] for Carmen De Lavallade; the birth of her and Charles' son Anthony in 1963; her husband's role in the show Ballad for Bimshire, choreographed by Talley Beatty; her singing roles including in (a summer production of) West Side Story; after her son's birth, returning to work in a production of A funny thing happened on the way to the forum, choreographed by Jack Cole; joining the touring production of Golden boy including her (brief) reminiscences of Sammy Davis, Jr.; her next engagement, in Zulu and the Zayda, in particular her reminiscences of the1966 [sic] blackout, which occurred on opening night; (briefly) her experience as a cast member in the show Purlie; [recording pause]; the "exotic" stage and film roles in which Charles was typically cast; her transition from performer to teacher beginning with her work as Charles' assistant in his federally-supported outreach work at schools in Alcoa, Tennessee and other impoverished, rural areas; the content of her classes including a mix of Dunham technique and modern dance; teaching at colleges, including Hunter College and SUNY, Westbury [State University of New York at Old Westbury]; anecdotes about her students at SUNY; how the African and African-fusion works Charles presented at the Clark Center for the Performing Arts became the basis for the repertory of his own company [Charles Moore Dance Theatre founded in 1974 by Charles and Ella]; some of the African dances Charles learned from African dance specialists including Professor Opoku [Albert Mawere Opoku] of Ghana (Moon Dance), Alex Bamfu, also of Ghana (Takai), and [Peter Badejo] of Nigeria (Jibu); (briefly) obtaining material from Godfrey Sackafeo including a program of dances from Asadata Daforo [1890-1965]; Charles had studied with him and based on Ella's statement below, had learned the dances from his students]; eventually using dances Charles had collected and in some cases revised, to present the company's first major program, at Pace University; Ella's role in the company as a teacher and a performer, including in the Agbekor dance; the development and growth of the company including the obtaining of grant money; performing [in 1978] at Jacob's Pillow [Dance Festival]; performing with the Dancemobile including anecdotes about their audiences, and at the Delacorte Theatre in New York's Central Park; touring with the company in Florida, Nassau [the Bahamas] and Haiti where they danced for Katherine Dunham; [Moore shows a photograph of herself and Charles in Haitian suite and of herself in (African) Congo].

Streaming file 5, November 24, 2020 (approximately one hour and 47 minutes). Ella Thompson Moore speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about her career as a teacher: her very first teaching job, when she was still a student at the Dunham school; substituting for and assisting her husband, Charles; various places they held classes including churches and P.S. 9, finally settling (after Charles' death) on a space in a private loft, in Brooklyn; holding classes for adults and for children, the latter also taught by Walter Raines; the content of their classes including ballet and a combination of Dunham technique and Pilates; Charles' other activities including his work with Charles Reinhart at the American Dance Festival; teaching at Hunter College; after Charles' death, continuing the school [Charles Moore Center for Ethnic Studies and Dances and Drums of Africa], including leasing the loft space; the crucial support she received from friends and Helen Cash [Jackson], head of the Special Arts Services program at the New York State Council for the Arts; maintaining and consolidating the company; sharing the loft space at times, including an anecdote about Juelz Santana's using it for an audition; eventually having to move due to an unaffordable increase in rent; the current status of the company; her informal role as rehearsal mistress; the approximate 20 years the school existed (closed around 2010) in particular, reminiscences of disruptive students; her continuing to be active notwithstanding her "retirement" including her involvement with Symphony Space and its Global Arts program; Charles Reinhart and his work (in 1988) to preserve certain works of Charles Moore, Eleo Pomare, Talley Beatty, and Donald McKayle; in this connection, her working with Jeraldyne Blunden and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company to revive the Ostrich dance [Charles Moore's version of Asadata Dafora's Awassa Astrige/Ostrich] including the process of choosing the dancers and the reasons for her dissatisfaction with the musical accompaniment; other companies for which she has staged the Ostrich dance including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre; reminiscences of dancing for Ailey and Holder; reflects on her career as an African-American dancer including the racism she encountered; Copper and brass, her first Broadway show in which she replaced Mary Hinkson, and McKayle was her partner; more on dancing in the industrial shows produced by automobile manufacturers; staging the Ostrich dance for Masters of American Black Dance [Masters of African American Choreography] at the Kennedy Center; how the dance world has changed since her youth including the current emphasis on technique; the greater opportunities for Black dancers and choreographers today; her view of the ideal dance world as one where dancers explore different techniques and styles; her advice to young dancers on the virtue of perseverance; more on performing in Holder's Dougla and Ailey's Revelations; her pride in Charles Moore Dance Theatre and her husband for having preserved so many African dances; more on Charles' learning dances from visiting African scholars (in particular, those of Ghana from his mentor, Professor Opoku) including Chiwara [a traditional dance of the Banbara people in Mali]; [Ella shows drawings of headdresses used in the Chiwara dance]; a 17th century dance from Ghana performed by women warriors, and dances Charles learned from the students of Asadata Dafora; (briefly) more on how Charles would revise the dances to accommodate their performance in theaters.

Funding

The Dance Oral History Project's 2020 recordings are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Added Author

Deans, Joselli Audain, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3498

*MGZDOH 3498

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