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 - (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 . 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 - and talk. They see NYC - 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. That combination was seen to striking advantage when Mr. Naharin performed Short Order. The new solo constructed by David Gordon - is set to a lilting Gottschalk . And Mr. Naharin has the air of a spellbound dreamer. What makes the solo so appealing a tour de force - at least as performed by Mr. Naharin - is its even - resilient flow. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 8 #1 1983 - CHANGING HORSES Pick Up board member Philip Semark - asks David to meet a would-be funder - of a dance about the double helix - Philip says - and DNA - to be performed at Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.

#2 David has no idea of who - how to - or what such a dance might be - but it’s a paying Pick Up Company job - inna ‘80s - and - it’ll pay rehearsal’n performance salaries for 7 dancers - including David - so David says yes.

#1 Changing Horses is constructed in 3 sections to 3 pieces of music. Action begins with an uncharacteristically speedy duet for Valda’n David. Racing - running - walking fast - turning - keeping up with - and chasing each other - as they chase the music. (see rehearsal video) Rehearsal video is shot by Ed Steinberg - and edited by Dennis Diamond - and David.

#2 Next 2 sections are group talking - “braiding” and a lotta do-si-doing. Do-si-doing is a square – 2 dancers approach each other - and circle back to back - return to original position.

#1 Braiding and do-si-doing are David’s movement response - he says - to double helix.

#2 Changing Horses is called Changing Horses - because David’s gonna do something else - thanks to Philip Semark - he don’t know howta do. Philip is the same board member - who suggests David direct Renard - the Stravinsky opera - at Spoleto. (see ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3) David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 9 #1 1983 - LIMITED PARTNERSHIP ç Linda Shapiro and Leigh Dillard - pictured 30 years later - directors of New Dance Ensemble in - in 1983 - invite David - he says - to make a new work - for New Dance. #2 Limited Partnership is performed collaboratively - by New Dance dancers - and Pick Up Performance dancers - and is video taped - for KTCA. #1 I DON’T KNOW - DAVID SAYS IN 2016 - HOW MUCH OF A CAREER - I WOULDA HAD INNA ‘80s - HOW MUCH WE WOULDA HAD - he says - VALDA N’ME - WITHOUT MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - and the Walker Arts Centre - and WITHOUT SUZANNE WEIL - WITHOUT SUE’S INVITATIONS TO PERFORM - AND PERFORM - AT THE WALKER ARTS CENTRE - WHICH MADE IT POSSIBLE - TO SHOW OUR WORK - DAVID SAYS - INNA MIDDLE OF AMERICA - which also made it economically possible for Valda and David - to stop off in Chicago - and perform for the 1st times - at Mo Ming - and - also made it economically possible to get to San Francisco - and to teach and perform - at Lone Mountain - for Joanna Gewirtz Harris - AND TO TEACH N’PERFORM - AT THE INVITATION - INVITATIONS - NUMBERS OF TIMES - FROM MARGARET JENKINS - IN HER STUDIO - TO SHOW OUR WORK ONNA WEST COAST - TO SHOW OUR WORK OUTTA NY. #2 Would be artists come to NY to work - but David - born in NY - don’t go nowhere - till Minneapolis - where - 1 consequence of touring - he discovers - for instance - is WEATHER. Toppa Minneapolis newsa the day is weather report - g’morning news - uh oh - tornado warnings - Valda - David yells - look outta the living room window - 3 tornado cones. Not our kinda NY weather report - g’morning news - chilly today - temperature’ll drop to 32 - or 28 - better get out ya woolies - no - WEATHER - how far below zero today? David ain’t never outta snow boots - and - his mustache freezes n’breaks off inna street - while Minnesotans - stroll and chat in glass enclosed walkways between office buildings. Betta stock up on fresh squeezed orange juice n’wild rice - from Lunds market - David says - smiley check out person wantsa know - how you are ya today? Don’t say cold - nobody in Minneapolis says cold. D’ya need help getting the groceries out to your car? #1 I’m outta town for a coupla weeks - I tell Azuma in NY - where I do 15 window displays a week to pay rent - David says - Sato brothers say ok - n’wait for me to come back - and Valda n’me - begin to share a performance career - a duet career - ain’t no Pick Up company yet - just us - and the metal folding chairs in denim drawstring bags - AND IT ALL STARTS WITH SUE WEIL - AND MINNEAPOLIS - and the Walker - Sue Weil presents Grand Union in the Walker lobby - and onna Guthrie Theater stage - and later - David workshops with Guthrie actors - and - Pick Up dancers - David says - and Sage and John Cowles - see the workshop n’support us - and Guthrie artistic director Garland Wright - lets me sit in on his rehearsals and - David says - lets me direct - inna Guthrie Lab - and onna Guthrie main stage . 1st TV show - David says - is in Minneapolis /St. Paul at KTCA - Alive From Off Center - n’Alyce Dissette - exits Pick Up - moves to Minneapolis - runs Alive TV - at KTCA - commissions new wk from David - David says - n’Bonnie Brooks - exits Pick Up - n’moves to Minneapolis - runs Minnesota Dance Alliance -

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 10 #2 and in Duluth, Minnesota - David makes a new work - for the Duluth Ballet - Valda and Margaret Hoeffel from Pick Up are in it - and - Valda is happy to be in Duluth because Pavlova danced in Duluth - she says - and David reads reviews by Mike Steele - for the 1st time - he writes dance criticism - for Minneapolis Star and Tribune - David’s 1st dance criticism outta NY - about his “work” - what he does - he - David - these early days - is thrilled to read about what he does - and how Mike Steele describes it - Mike Steele - inna Minneapolis Star and Tribune - April 1983 - writes about Limited Partnership - David Gordon is a singular force in the dance world. There’s nobody quite like him. Though by now we’re quite aware of his background – - the Judson - - Grand Union – it’s unfair and fairly impossible to lock him into any easy category. #1 Thought bits and pieces of his background continue to resonate through his works - especially the use of spoken text and natural movement - I’d swear I also detected influences from vaudeville - Buster Keaton - W.C. Fields certainly - Russian Romanticism diffusely and - heaven help us - soap operas. #2 What pigeon hole does that fit? It’s not traditional – technique is unexceptional and hardly tested - his movement vocabulary is small – yet Gordon’s pieces finally work in dance terms. His knowledge of weight and balance is superb - and his use of bodies in relation to each other is dynamic. Limited Partnership is all dance with no dialogue and - though it deals with partnering - it isn’t romantic. In fact - it’s quite cool and formal - the dancers carrying out movement tasks rather than being motivated by outer - or inner - provocations. It begins with a soft - stretching duet for New Dance Ensemble’s Leigh Dillard and Wil Swanson - again a partnership based on mutual balances and support. #1 That moves into a configuration with 4 couples. Again partners quickly change in sequences - and soon it becomes clear - that the dance will consist of variations on the original duet. In time both companies are stretched across the stage on the diagonal - at first dancing independently of each other - then slowly merging. #2 Much of the 25 minute dance is to silence interspersed by brief piano miniatures. The piece becomes heavier and more complex as it develops - the movement finally blurring as the number of dancers increases - #1 1983 LIMITED PARTNERSHIP II Video of the dance Limited Partnership is produced and taped and edited at KTCA in Minneapolis/St. Paul - and co-directed by Katherine Esher - and by David - generously invited to “co-direct” - and to edit - David says - and I make my way daily - bundled in layersa wool’n shearling - and my terrible blue plastic “moon boots” - snow boots - from the discount shoe store at 537 Broadway - replaced in 2016 by upscale Soho fashions. I don’t imagine when I buy those bloody boots - David says - I ain’t never gonna take ‘em off. David is driven from downtown Minneapolis apartment - 1 block from the frozen lake - where do the loons go? By car to St. Paul - mosta December n’January 1983 - is this true? This is the way I remember it. I am very sure of myself - David says - when I ask the camera to focus on chest to knees - of dancers as we dip down - into the frame - and - and tilt n’ jump up - outta the frame - and director Katherine Esher - and the camera cooperate - so I get what I want - and am forever haunted - by a ½ hour video work - that spends an inordinate lotta time - visually focused on web belts with metal buckles. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 11

#2 1983 - THE PHOTOGRAPHER Harvey Lichtenstein meets with David at Phoebe’s 4th street Manhattan eatery. Talks about upcoming BAM production. The Photographer to be directed by JoAnne Akalaitis with music by Philip Glass. Asks David to choreograph. #1 Paul Taylor was asked 1st and declined. Harvey doesn’t say so but David heard. #2 David says no thanks. He’s pissed. He ain’t been asked to BAM before. #1 But Harvey’s a sweet and smart man. Passionate about dance, He convinces David to say okay.

#2 rd Valda Setterfield’s Muybridge solo - (see ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 1) - center of 3 section of The Photographer. Valda is discovered naked - in a see-through dress - rising from a pool of water - both designed by Santo Loquasto. Originally performed in silence - the number of poses in the solo are doubled and performed in the 20-minute section to the beat of the Philip Glass score. The pool - on the BAM opera house stage - is off center stage left. Pick Up dancers enter stage left 1 or 2 or 3 at a time. Actors in Victorian character’n costumes enter’n stroll among the dancers - circle the pool - run’n are caught for moments of stillness - alone or in groups. The repetitions of the Glass music escalate as Valda sits and holds each reclining pose in the water of the pool. She rises and splashes as she turns and holds each next pose in relation to the speeding tempo. Entire cast, character actors of all ages - in 3 piece suits’n hats and heavy Victorian gowns move continuously to speeding music through the 20 minutes. They surround the pool of water and are signaled to stillness by flashes of Jennifer Tipton’s light as they seem to be photographed. Tipton’s light gets brighter and brighter until the final chords of the Glass music bring down the curtain. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 12 #1 1983 - FRAMEWORK Framework was created during a residency at Lake Placid Center for the Arts - in NY State. #2 Additional sections were commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. #1 David re-uses wood frames and painted masonite boards designed by Power Boothe for Trying Times - as the “visual devices” for Framework. Susan Eschelbach - Margaret Hoeffel and Keith Marshall, with Valda and David and 3 new Pick Ups – Paul Evans, - Theodora Fogarty and Dean Moss form the 1983/84 Framework company. #2 Together - in Lake Placid - in a many bedroomed house for a month they breakfast together and commute daily together to rehearse in a gas-heatered barn and to shop together - in a local supermarket and to cook together and to eat dinner together. Never before - David says - and never again. The enforced lack of privacy enters the bloodstream of Framework. #1 í David and Margaret Hoeffel - In a 1984 Oberlin College program for Framework David finds the writing of Sali Ann Kriegsman. Sali Ann Kriegsman - in notes from performance at the Smithsonian Institution - is excerpted -

Gordon, by nature, is a critic. His work both presents and comments on itself. He is often lumped together with a generation of “post-modern” choreographers for lack of a better frame of reference for his work and because his individuality resists classification. It is true that the material he uses – pedestrian movement - for example - and his use of repetition – has a kinship to that of other post-moderns. But Gordon is at heart a vaudevillian - a weaver of yarns - a composer of riddles - a magician confounding expectations. The basis of his work is movement. Photographic images - video and - most important - the spoken and written word are collaborative elements. From these materials Gordon constructs dance anagrams whose meaning and tone shift rapidly. Historian Sally Banes has compared Gordon’s work to that of a cubist painter - noting his lamination of images - movements and words. Others have remarked on the inseparability of life and work in his performance pieces.

The material David Gordon has chosen to present this evening will strike chords of recognition - about relationship and isolation - commitment and separation - and about the difficulty of seeing ourselves ê and each other as we “really” are. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 13 #1 David has no thought of an archival future - inna 80s - and no purposeful method for collection of materials. Creates temporary disposable “art” as fast as he can. Anywhere for anybody. Don’t enter his mind - something he makes would or should last. Like store windows he designs - to economically survive - he enjoys the speed and disappearance of product. The products of David’s 2 careers - dance and display - appear and disappear - and he don’t mind. Till now? David and Valda Setterfield è

#2 1983 - PASSING THROUGH Yacov Sharir commissions a new work - to be made by David Gordon for American Deaf Dance Company in Austin, Texas. #1 Deaf and hearing dancers work together experiencing rhythmic impulse through bare feet - onna sprung dance floor. ç David finds this 1 picture and no program. Doesn’t know - remember - if there’s music - or what it is. David never sees Passing Through - after rehearsals end. Never sees it performed. #2 1984 - NEGOTIABLE BONDS Suzanne Costello is a very good dancer. She dances 1 time - in 1981 - with Pick Up - in Profile - at DTW. In 1984 Suzanne and partner Stuart Pimsler commission a duet. Negotiable Bonds is made in NY and performed in their home city - Minneapolis. Program says music is Mozart - it don’t say what it is. David don’t know. David never sees Negotiable Bonds after rehearsals end. Never sees it performed. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 14 #1 1984 - - is Artistic Director - of American Ballet Theatre - and - maybe - the most famous dancer inna world - and David Gordon - is definitely - not. Baryshnikov is in London - with Charles France - his assistant - and - David is in London - with no assistant - working with 7 British dancers and artistic director Emilyn Claid - at Extemporary Dance Theatre. #2 Misha wantsa commission - a 1st ballet - from David - for ABT. We meet at hotel bar - David says - opposite Harrods department store. #1 Charles does mosta the talking. David’s gonna have - Charles says - 12 corps dancers - 6 soloists - and 2 principals . #2 20 ballet dancers - in his 1st ballet - David says oh - okay. And - ballerina Martine Van Hamel - Charles says - wantsa do it - and her partner will be - Clark Tippet. David says oh - okay. And David must - Charles says - choose music beforehand - so - a score can go to the conductor - and to the orchestra - and to the rehearsal accompanist - and David says oh - okay. #1 David - who never begins by selecting music - chooses Irish composer John Field - who is said to have invented - the nocturne - and in 1984 - while David’s in London he experiments - with Field’s music - for Extemporary Dance Theatre - and makes Field Study - with 7 dancers - and 6 metal and wood slatted chairs - he finds in their London studio. 1984 - FIELD STUDY - chairs are thrown’n caught - sat on - and stood on - by 3 women and 4 men - couples - but with an odd man out - which produces - in the duets - David says - î - a kinda perverse sexual tension. David never sees it performed.

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 15 1984 - FIELD, CHAIR and MOUNTAIN

#2 David asks Valda to assist him’n she says okay. Gonna make - I say - MY 1st ballet - surrounded by friends - I say - so - I say - I ain’t - won’t be - scared - but I am - David says. #1 Light by Jennifer Tipton - costumes by Santo Loquasto. David takes his own shirt’n pants to Santo - to copy - so dancers - look ordinary - he says - look like him - he says - in rehearsal. His shirt’n pants - he don’t mention - are discount Italian designer. David asks Santo - for a Maxfield Parrish mountain backdrop - and - paint metal folding chairs onna mountain - please - David says. #2 David finds - in ABT’s studios - metal folding chairs - with cushioned seats. Martine Van Hamel is promenaded - on point - by Clark Tippett è and - drills holes daily - in the seat cushion - so - they hafta keep getting new chairs.

With Elaine Kudo & Johan Renvall.è Chrisa Keramidas & Wes Chapman. Lisa Lockwood & John Gardner. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 16 #1 So - 1984 - ’85 - David’s gonna make his 1st ballet - for ABT - and - or but - he also says yes - to his own Pick Up Company performances - at the Joyce Theater - ç My Folks’n 2 NEW pieces’n 1 of ‘em - he says - will be - Offenbach Suite - í and 1 will be A Plain Romance Explained - to more Field music - so he can practice - he says. I’m practical - David says to Valda - the more I work with the Field music - with music - the better off I will be - at ABT. #2 Inna ‘80s - David is invited - to make a lotta new work. Does he ever say no? Ask and he will come. It don’t occur to him to say no. Ain’t “yes” success?

#1 Says yes - also - to Arthur Mitchell at Dance Theatre of Harlem - ç n’rehearses Piano Movers - to music by Django Reinhardt - and he rehearses - for the Joyce Theater program - and - í ABT opens Field, Chair and Mountain at the Met - and I’m on my way home - David says - from Dance Theatre rehearsal - on 155th Street - he says - hungry - tired’n I smell. #2 Change trains at West 4th for the F - to Broadway/Lafayette - and - onna toppa a trash can is - the Post. I gave up reading reviews in 1966. (see ‘60s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2) And I never read the Post. 1984 - Clive Barnes - N.Y. Post dance critic - headlines David Gordon as “Caspar Milquetoast of the Ballet” - in a negative review of Gordon’s 1st ballet for ABT. Field, Chair and Mountain is no good - Mr. Barnes writes - and artistic director of ABT - Baryshnikov - is also no good - if he commissions the likes of Gordon. #1 Uh oh - David says to himself - if he don’t go to the Met tonight - everybody - the dancers - Misha - will think it’s because of this bad review. David wipes his face with his bandana handkerchief - tucks his shirt in his pants’n heads back uptown. to the Met. Heads for ABT box. Apologizes to Misha for the review - Misha pooh poohs - asks David to start work on 2nd ballet. Misha says - he wantsa be in it. (See ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3)

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 17 1984 - Rose’n Sam Gordon’s ç 50th wedding anniversary top row right to left - Ruth Bamundo - Alfred Wunderlich Irene Reichback - Pauline Cooper Yetta Adler Front row - right to left - Rose’n Sam Gordon Sam don’t perform for the camera -

1959 - th Rose’n Sam’s 25 é Anniversary - left to right - Rose - David - Lois - Sam - Richard

1984 -ê - Rose’n Sam’s 50th - David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 18

#2 1984 - My Folks - dancer Margaret Hoeffel - inna early ‘80s - suggests I go - David says - to a Klezmer concert - at Henry Street Settlement - before it morphs into Abrons Center. Not far from where Auntie Paulie lives on Grand Street - where David - when he’s a kid - useta take piano lessons. Rosie - David says - gives birth to Barry - or Lois - n’can’t come to my recital. Nobody comes - which ain’t unusual’n - I do no favors to the piano music - of Dmitri Kabalevsky - David says. And - by the way - what’s a Klezmer concert? David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 19 #1 Okay - so I go with Margaret - and maybe I persuade Auntie Paulie to come too? I almost remember. Who knew Klezmer is music I dance to - at Bar Mitzvahs’n weddings all my life. I don’t know it has a name. Don’t know anyone - who ain’t a Jew - hears Klezmer. Margaret says these musicians are Klezmer experts. So I buy a lotta new records - American Klezmer groups - and Klezmer LPs - recorded before World War 2 - by European musicians - before everybody - either emigrates to America - or gets killed - and - before Benny Goodman - and his band - and his clarinet - records Sing Sing Sing. #2 Okay - I begin to thinka making a dance to Klezmer. Don’t know what kinda dance. I could use Power Booth’s striped cloths - painted canvas cloths - for Trying Times - which - if ya wrap ‘em around yaself look like prayer shawls - like old guys inna synagogue - and - the - black’n red painted cloths - for a Dean Moss’n Keith Marshall duet. è #1 And what if Power paints shiny enamel stripes - on a matte black stiff tulle circle skirt - and Valda wears it í for a Klezmer solo in 1984.

#2 1984 - striped painted tulle skirt in ë My Folks - #1 My Folks begins to be videotaped in 1986 with original cast - by John Sanborn. Pick Up Company runs outta money - taping resumes in 1988- with cast changes. In donated space - at The Kitchen. My Folks shows in England on BBC 4 TV 1984 - ê - MY FOLKS David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 20 # 2 The program was completed by ''My Folks,'' which will likely prove to be a signature work for Mr. Gordon. Dedicated to his grandmother and mother, four ''other mothers'' and to Samuel Gordon, his ''only father,'' ''My Folks'' draws from the choreographer's upbringing on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Created in 1984 and expanded the following year, the dance takes large rectangular swatches of red and black striped material, klezmer music and eight dancers, and creates a tapestry of love and death and of families and circuses that is immensely and unforgettably touching. For all its throbbing underlying emotion, ''My Folks'' can be viewed too as pure, abstract design, due in part to Mr. Boothe's work on the piece. It was danced by a gifted company that also has a wonderfully odd and luscious look. (excerpt from Jennifer Dunning NY Times review of BAM 1986

Tobi Tobias