David Gordon

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 1 #1 DAVID IS SURPRISED - IN 1982 - when - ç BONNIE BROOKS - PROGRAM SPECIALIST AT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS - - volunteers to leave her secure government job - and to relocate - from Washington DC to NYC - to become - Managing Director of the newly incorporated Pick Up Performance Company. #2 DAVID IS SURPRISED - to use metal folding chairs - for the 1st time - since 1974/75 - in a new work called T.V. Reel - to be performed in the Setterfield/Gordon studio - and - David asks artist - ç POWER BOOTHE - who designed everything in Trying Times - 1982 - to repaint old painted plaster studio walls - for the performance - to look like - new unpainted taped sheet rock studio walls - and surprised when Power agrees. It’s a good visual joke - David says - and cheaper - than to paint ê new taped unpainted sheet rock - 2 coatsa white. #1 David buys new çchairs - for new T.V. Reel - with 2 bars - far apart enough - to do original ‘74 Chair moves #2 Step up on - metal chairs - and - stand up n’step up - and stand up. With no bars - legs spread - and spread. #1 Original metal chairs - borrowed from Lucinda Childs - (see ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2) have bars - between front’n front legs - and back’n back legs. #2 Company is Appalachian? Adirondack? Some kinda mountain. #1 Borrowed Lucinda Childs’ chairs - are blue. New chairs are brown. We still have original blue chairs - David says. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 2 #2 1982 - T.V. Reel is performed by Valda Setterfield, Nina Martin î Keith Marshall, Paul Thompson, Susan Eschelbach, David Gordon and Margaret Hoeffel - danced to looped excerpts of - Miller’s Reel recorded in 1976 - by New England Conservatory country fiddle band - and conducted by Gunther Schuller. #1 David is surprised to hear - Susan won’t be at 1st T.V. Reel rehearsal. Why not? Susan hasta go to California. David hasta figure howta include Susan - in the T.V. Reel opening - with no Susan. David is surprised to discover the “positive negative” - a scripted opening movement section - - #2 David is gonna call the opening section - í - Where’s Susan? #1 David is surprised - In 2015 - as he works on Archiveography - and looks at - old video tape - and reads old scripts - to discover - what he musta thought - without thinking about it - and what he still thinks - if he thinks about it - #2 1 step is 1 somethingth - of a walk - or a dance. 1 word is 1 somethingth - of a thought - or a sentence - or a soliloquy. David deals with “words” and “steps” - as equals. Equal to notes in music. To breaths. How many - of any of ‘em - make a phrase - composed of sound and movement? David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 3 #1 2015 - interviewer says to film & TV author Aaron Sorkin - I suppose your sIgnature ‘‘walk and talks’’ are - sort of lIke - choreographed dance numbers. Sorkin says - actually - that was simply a way to add visual Interest - to a visual medium - that I only really use aurally. Subtract the words “simply” and “only” and “really” - says David Gordon - about his own performance work. #2 For plate passing video - David and Ain carry the Gordon kitchen wood table - 8 feet long and 3 feet wide - into the studio. Plus 6 new brown metal folding chairs. Plus Gordon family heavy white restaurant china - service for 6 - plates, bowls and mugs. Plus brown and white checkered table cloth. ê David and Ain sit at opposite sides - and ends - of the table. *Watch here at Digital Collections NYPL #1 David is surprised - to be able to improvise “plate passing”. But - Ain can see David move a plate - so - he moves a plate. Dancers see Ain or David move a plate - or see each other - so - dancers move plates. Dancers move bowls. #2 Put a bowl on a plate. Put a mug in a bowl. Pass a mug to the right. Pass a bowl to the left. Put a plate on a bowl. Put a bowl on a mug. Put a bowl on a plate. Put a mug in a bowl. And a bowl to the left. And a plate on a bowl. Bowl on a plate. Mug in a bowl. Bowl to the right. Mug to the left. David is surprised - by the loud sound of plates hitting plates. #1 1990 - new ½ hour version of T.V. Reel - with new bandana costumes sewn by Valda Setterfield and Norma Fire - for halfa new casta dancers - including singer comedian Gayle Tufts in ½ of Valda’s role - is edited and rehearsed in a residency at Cornell University - and performed î on the newly invented DTW Late Show . David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 4 #2 David - since Chair - in 1974 - thinks of the metal folding chair - not as a “prop” - but as a partner. #1 1 dancer partners with 1 chair - a kinda duet. 2 dancers and 2 metal folding chairs - David says - equals a kinda quartet. #2 David can dance 2 dancers - Susan Eschelbach and Keith Marshall - up from the floor onto a chair - and with a sturdy restaurant table - with a center post - up onto the table top - and down onto a 2nd chair - and down onto the floor. 2 dancers plus 2 chairs plus 1 table - David says - equals a kinda quintet - and is a film reference - he says - to î Fred and GInger. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 5 #2 1982 - TRYING TIMES 1982 - Critic Arlene Croce writes the New Yorker profile about David’s work. (see People Talk About DavId) Arlene and David talk together - see old films - talk - eat - drink - see new’n old dances - and talk. They see NYC Ballet - together - at Lincoln Center. George Balanchine’s Apollo. See it again. David useta see Apollo with Jimmy - inna ‘50s - at City Center. Will David dare to use Stravinsky Apollo score to make a new work. He talks with artist Power Boothe about a “moveable set”? Power refer to moveable set pieces as “visual devices.” He designs 8’ X 4’ rectangular painted wood frames. Painted masonite boards - 8’ X 2’ attached folding panels - to be vertical arches - and a horizontal playpen ê #1 David White commissions Trying Times for a run at Dance Theater Workshop. TRYING TIMES CONCLUDES WITH A MOCK TRIAL. VALDA SETTERIELD - AS DAVID’S LAWYER - DEFENDS HIM. Pick Up dancers testify against David. They accuse him - of not sticking to “postmodern” principals. He makes ‘em talk - they say. They are trained dancers - and he makes ‘em talk. How - the dancers say - can we recognize hIs “signature piece” If we can’t read hIs handwrItIng. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 6 #2 Trying Times edited script excerpt: Lawyer’s summation - I go is it my go? You know - now? The Judge goes - go! Your Judgeship - I go - gentlemen’n ladies of the you know what - who of us knows - I mean - what anyone means - when they do - I go - what they do? Is this artist on trial - you know - for what he does or did - I go - or for what he doesn’t -or didn’t do? He doesn’t deny - I mean - postmodern you know what. He doesn’t really know you know I go - what it is or was. The only group he admits he belongs to - I go - was fathered by his father’n includes - I go - his son. Is he only guilty - I go - of playing Hide and Seek - when we all want so badly - to play Tag - or Pin The Tail On The Donkey? I could call witnesses - I go - too. His sister and brother still love him some - and his wife - I go - if I do say so myself. He has a couple of friends left I go and he once had a dog. But doggone it I go the best person I know - to speak for himself is himself - don’t you know? But he’s not here I go so I have to tell you - what he’d say if he were - and you can call it hearsay - I go - or you can call it - hear me. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 7 #1 Do I swear - I go - to tell what I know about you know who? I go - I do. Did he do it? Yes and no! Will he do it again? Not if he can help it! Will he toe the mark? Not if he can find it! Is that all he has to say? I go no way! In summing up - I go - the quality of mercy is not - you know what. It droppeth as the you know what - from you know where - upon the so and so - and on I go. with - Susan Eschelbach - DavId Gordon -Margaret Hoeffel - KeIth Marshall - Nina MartIn - Paul Thompson and - Valda SetterfIeld and - DavId Capps - MelIssa Matson - Rhonda Moore - Lucy Sexton - DavId Wolfe 1983 SHORT ORDER #2 Ohad NaharIn left the Graham company In 1976 and danced wIth the Béjart ballet company. He acknowledges those as “stations” in his career. They didn’t Influence hIm - he said - like Cunningham - Forsythe or Bausch. He said about Gordon - a useful step In his learning process - to understand the relationshIp of a body In space - the way Gordon taught It In hIs “multidImensIonal” movement style. David says - multidimensional movement style? (excerpt from NY Times revIew, Jan 25, 1984 by JennIfer DunnIng.) Ohad Naharin approaches movement with the matter-of-fact air of someone who just wandered into it - but the way he moves is that of a highly trained and skillful dancer.

Load more