David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 1 #1 1985 - Nine Lives is commissioned by - American Festival. Well no - “something” is commissioned - turns out to be Nine Lives. 1987 - TV NINE LIVES - to Western music - in fronta cutout chairs - drawn and painted - by Rocky Pinciotti. DEAN MOSS and - ê - and MISHA and VALDA -ê - MADE IN U.S.A. - PBS

Nine Lives begins life for 8 dancers? 2016 - David don’t remember 8 dancers.

New Four Man Nine Lives is reviewed in Oregon ë by Barry Johnson. Photos by Andrew Eccles CHUCK FINLON JUMPS OVER METAL FOLDING CHAIR - é - in NINE LIVES - David begins to remember 8 dancers in Nine Lives. David’s sure he’s never in Nine Lives êtill he reads British review of Sadler’s Wells performance - by David Gougill. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 2

#2 David - reminded by Brit review é he’s “48 - stocky - mustached - and boring”. Musta cut “western film dialogue”? Keeps western swing music - plaid shirts - felt hats - vests’n flannel-lined Euro-patterned pajama pants - shopped by David in 2nd hand stores - for all Nine Lives versions - Including Made in U.S.A. - 1987 - PBS Great Performances. ëCHUCK FINLON - DEAN MOSS PARTNER. Valda also don’t remember being in it. Sits n’knits - in a chair - does a new chair duet with David. #1 Chuck Finlon - Keith Marshall - Dean Moss n’Robert Wood - give up partsa their parts in Nine Lives’n teach’em to Misha. Scott Cunningham - graciously - gives up alla his part. Wraps his arms around a mobile camera man’n guides him - through the dangerous center action - during the shoot of the movement. VALDA IN HANDLE-BAR-MUSTACHE - PERFORMS ORIGINAL 1974 METAL CHAIR ROTATION. DAVID NEVER AGAIN SHOWS NINE LIVES - FOUR MAN NINE LIVES or TV NINE LIVES.

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 3 #2 1985 - PIANO MOVERS EDITED excerpt from NY Times: SPURRING DANCE TROUPES TO TAKE RISKS by Barry Laine - published June 16, 1985 2 kindsa anxiety for me - David Gordon amiably confessed at a symposium titled ''Making Tomorrow's Dance Today,'' sponsored by National Project: Kind that says you're in the wrong place - get outta here’n the kind that says you're uncomfortable’n this is great. Mr. Gordon discussed the creative challenge - of bringing 2 decades of experimental experience to the . Such challenge has come to fruition. NY audiences have seen Field, Chair and Mountain - during American Ballet Theatre's just-completed spring season; now Dance Theatre of Harlem offers the world premiere of Piano Movers - a N.C.P. commission – in its 2 week Metropolitan Opera House debut engagement. The premiere of this unusual ballet at as prestigious a venue as the Met typifies the spirit of artistic risk-taking - encouraged by the National Choreography Project. #1 David is commissioned by founding artistic director Arthur Mitchell - to make new work - for 11 Dance Theatre of Harlem dancers. There’s a grand piano in the dance studio. David asks if it moves and it does. Dancers easily move the grand piano to 1 side. David says there must be a grand piano everywhere you go? Someone says yes. David says, a grand piano might serve as the “set” for the piece I “construct”. Nobody says no, David, that’s a terrible idea. 11 dancers enter rolling a grand piano. Sit and lean on it and dance on’n around it to recorded music of Thelonius Monk. Duets and trios. Costumed by Santo Loquasto and lit by Jennifer Tipton. Turns out no theater wants ya to roll their grand piano around’n climb on or dance on it. David still imagines MGM movie musicals of his teenage years. Turns out - to tour Piano Movers - DTH hasta construct’n package a faux grand. With no insides for shipping and assembling. In theater after theater including the Met in NY. Not one of Gordon’s better ideas. A dud - 1 critic writes. Very sorry National Choreography Project. Very sorry DTH dancers. Very sorry Mr. Mitchell.

#2 1985 - ELEVEN WOMEN IN REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES Presented by NY University’s Second Avenue Dance Company graduate and undergraduate students - at the Tisch School of the Arts. - Jennifer Dunning - in the NY Times writes - David Gordon’s new Eleven Women in Reduced Circumstances could have used a little editing è but there are few moments - in this typically tender - slyly funny dance - that one would have wanted to miss. This was a ritual crammed with minimalist confections that drew on and celebrated - the dancers’ youth and gave them a touchingly chaste look that was enhanced by the high - childlike voices singing the work’s Mozart score. Program says music is by Mozart - David says in 2016 - but don’t say what the music was - and there ain’t any photos - and David remembers nothing. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 4

#1 1985 - is a year for making a lotta new pieces - in London - Paris and New York - and for performing programs that include - My Folks - Offenbach Suite - A Plain Romance Explained - or - Nine Lives - in America and England. Do I remember - David says - Offenbach music hasta be played live - for British Dance Umbrella Festival - ç at Sadler’s Wells - by British musicians - by union rules - but they play the music so differently - from the recording we use’n rehearse to - David says -- n’we ain’t good enough to adjust to the musicians - and to the raked Sadler’s Wells stage - fast enough - so a deal is struck - n’musicians are paid - n’I apologize - David says - but we perform to the tape we have with us? #2 1985 OFFENBACH SUITE David Gordon - in 2015 - comments on NY Times review - May 17, 1985 - of Offenbach Suite - by Anna Kisselgoff. He never read it in ’85. #1 David Gordon is an experimental modern-dance choreographer whose work is increasingly seen in ballet companies. Three new works danced by his own troupe, the David Gordon/Pick Up Company, suggests he can best be understood as an avant-gardist of the 1960s who has systematized his work for the 1980s. Tuesday night's opening at the Joyce Theater (19th Street and Eighth Avenue) showed off an attractive, quick-witted company in cleverly structured pieces. Mr. Gordon is most effective at his briefist. Concepts are his strong point. But his movement ideas do not always fill out the stage time he allots himself. #2 A little true for a coupla years - 2 for ABT - 1 for Dance Theatre of Harlem. David don’t know what “systemizing his work for the 1980s” means. WHAT HE’S DOING AT THIS TIME IS TRYING TO TEACH HIMSELF - FAST AS HE CAN HOWTA USE - WHOLE PIECES OF MUSIC. HE MOSTLY MOVES IN SILENCE - OR TO TEXT - OR TO - ENOUGH OF A MUSIC EXCERPT - TO SUGGEST MUSIC YOU MIGHT HEAR - IF HE USED MUSIC. In a kinda way Ms. Kisselgoff’s right - but he’s determined - he says - to understand - classic form’n it’s relation to music - as he simultaneously wantsa screw it up. He undercuts or overrides or “chases the music”. Hafta chase the music - he says - to the dancers - and - he says - ain’t he always editing to a minimalist aesthetic? David wonders if anyone’ll notice if he re-uses the Offenbach section re-timed - to - the beat of Klezmer music -and re-costumed for My Folks. Anna Kisselgoff notices. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 5 #1 An intermission preceded ''My Folks''- which repeated a passage the dancers had performed in the previous work. Such compositional devices - including the same choreography to different music - owes a great deal to 's view of dance and to his once-rebellious disciples in the , of which Mr. Gordon was a charter member. The choreographer was at his best in ''Offenbach Suite'' which ran - without pause - into the second work - ''A Plain Romance Explained.'' ''Offenbach Suite'' has sweetly ironic music by the composer but is concerned with hard physical facts - mainly lifting and turning. Valda Setterfield - in a blue Isadora Duncan tunic over tights - strikes up a movement scene by holding ballet's attitude position. The same pose is picked up by the ensemble - Keith Marshall, Dean Moss, Janice Bourdage, Chuck Finlon, Kenneth Kirkland and Kay McCabe. The movement quality, especially in the second piece, is fluid and devoid of climaxes - interesting in the smoothness. Even when Mr. Gordon in the second piece plunges an arm sharply down, the liquidness of the phrasing is eye-catching. Formal devices often suggest human relations here. Mr. Gordon lifts and cradles a languorous Miss Setterfield. Her pose suggests a turn-of-the-century style and also tenderness.

ç ''A Plain Romance'' plays on the ideas of creative process and rehearsals - as first Mr. Marshall explains his steps- and relationship to an invisible partner. When the other dancers do the same, the joke wears thin. Tedium sets in. #2 David can’t help thinking - ain’t “the joke wearing thin and tedium” - some of his active ingredients - like repetition and argument and repetition and argument? Or - maybe not? Or - maybe. He must acknowledge - David says - as he nears the end of this career - that it is the end of this career and that perversity is and was always - at work in his work. How can he do and undo a climax simultaneously? How can he present something that looks improvised - and is rehearsed enough to look improvised? How can he sincerely signal how much he loves what he loves - and laugh and cry or groan at his own sincerity? How can he eat his favorite rye bread - with caraway seeds - and have it too? David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 6 #1 1984 - A PLAIN ROMANCE EXPLAINED

#2 Pick Up is called Pick Up because David is ambivalent - about dance company responsibility. Wantsa say g’bye - after the show. Susan Eschelbach - Margaret Hoeffel - n’Christina Svane are in 1977’s What Happened. When DTW run ends they don’t wanna go. They choose Keith Marshall in ’78 audition - Margaret marries folk maven Martin Koenig in ’86. Margaret goes’n Susan heads to L.A. - to work in film. Tobi Tobias - June 3, 1985 Keith marries dancer Barbara - before he hasta “get a real job” n’be a father - he getsta work with new Pick Ups - Chuck Finlon’n Dean Moss’n problem solve’n partner’n - jump’n turn together - and by doing what they do so well - they - affect David’s work - for all the years they’re there. ç Keith’s 1985 dancing talking solo - and trio - with Valda’n David in A Plain Romance Explained - is fast and fun for David to make - and to do.

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 7 #1 ç 1985 - BACH AND OFFENBACH David makes 2nd piece - 1st is Field Study - 1984 - for Extemporary Dance Theatre - British modern dance company - established in 1976 - by students of London School of . Emilyn Claid is director between ’81 n’90. Extemporary performs works by Richard Alston, Karole Armitage, Michael Clark, Katie Duck, Viola Farber, Lloyd Newson’n Steve Paxton. Newson also with company in Gordon work. #2 1985 - David works daily with Extemporary dancers on Bach and Offenbach. Also with Valda and Misha. There’s gonna be a PBS Dance in America of David’s work with Baryshnikov, the Pick Ups and A.B.T. #1 He will choreograph a new duet for Valda’n Misha. They fly to London to rehearse with David at The Place. Talk about - David says - how you come to dance - in England and Russia - see Made in U.S.A. - 1987. And to dance in America - David says. He asks questions in rehearsal’n audiotapes the answers. Adds’n subtracts improvised words for timing. Creates punch lines and adds’n subtracts dance steps. Rehearses daily with Extemporary and with Misha’n Valda. Some of Valda’n Misha’s duet movement - winds up in Bach and Offenbach. And vice versa. #2 1985 FOUR CORNERED MOON DANCE: By JENNIFER DUNNING, Special to the New York Times from Becket, Mass., Published: August 5, 1985. A distinctive repertory and well-trained, exuberant dancers made for a program of exceptional vitality on Saturday afternoon when the Clive Thompson Dance Company performed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass. The company has another winner in Four Cornered Moon, created recently for the dancers by David Gordon. This airy dance is one of the ubiquitous Mr. Gordon's most hauntingly lovely works. Set to piano music by Claude Debussy and bathed in a clear blue dusk created by Paul Merwin, company lighting designer - Four Cornered Moon is a quartet for a man, two women and a blue rectangular frame designed by Power Booth, an artist who frequently collaborates with Mr. Gordon. #1 ç 1985 BEETHOVEN & BOOTHE 1982 - artist Power Boothe creates “visual devices” for Trying Times. 4’ X 8’ painted masonite boards - painted striped cloths - and frames. David uses these rectangular treasures again’n again - inna ‘80s. Valda teaches Cunningham technique - for Le Theatre du Silence - in La Rochelle. Directors Jacques Garnier’n Brigitte Lefevre hire Valda. #2 Garnier becomes director of GRCOP. Groupe Recherche Chorégraphique de l'Opéra de Paris. Beethoven & Boothe is made for GRCOP. Valda assists’n teaches class. David thinks he gets this job because the French are fond of Valda. David wants to re-use Power Boothe’s frames. (see ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2) Power sends frame measurements to be reconstructed in Paris. Does Power suggest Beethoven? Sonata for Piano #32 in C Minor, opus 111. Beethoven & Boothe is performed in France’n at American Dance Festival in Durham - NC. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 8

1986 - Baryshnikov asks David for a 2nd ballet for ABT - and he wantsa be in it - he says. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 9 #2 Baryshnikov’s assistant at ABT is clever - flamboyant - difficult Charles France. Talk to Charles - Misha says - about what you wanna do. David tells Charles he’s thinking about a possible new ballet - to be called Murder - danced to Berlioz Symphonie Funebre. Charles says yes. #1 Famous literary characters dance’n die 1 atta time - and Misha - David says - is Dr. Jekyll’n Mr. Hyde. He dies - funeral procession - David says - Misha disappears inna crowd - new famous character dances - and dies. Charles says no. Whattaya mean no? Misha don’t “disappear” on stage - Charles says - the audience always wantsa know where’s Misha? Oh - David says - oh - okay - how about Misha is every famous character? Dies over’n over - slides outta a coffin trap door - n’changes costume - onna stage - during the funeral - becomes next famous character - and dances’n dies again’n again. Charles says yes. #2 Charles France says - how about Edward Gorey - his friend - as set’n costume designer. David says yes. Edward Gorey says yes. ç Note from Edward Gorey re - design of coffins for ballet Murder.

#1 The 1st coffin is the sizeable equivalent of a studio apartment - and weighs a ton - and 6 dancing men can barely lift the bloody thing - with - or - without Misha inside - so they hafta make it again - and it never actually gets to be light - but it gets to be - lighter’n - I apologize to the dancers - In a final dress rehearsal - David says. Misha’s Dr. Jekyll white lab coat needs film noir shadows - David says - just gimme a black magic marker - he says - I can fix it. Costume maker says no. We don’t have Edward Gorey’s permission. Charles France says - I’ll call him - out the swinging door - n’back in’n says - Ted says yes. David draws shadows - near cuffs’n collar - thanks Charles. Ya know - David says - Edward Gorey useta be - for a coupla years - onna 1st Pick Up Boarda Directors - David says. I was told - David says - I oughta have a coupla celebrities - onna board - and someone says Gorey likes my work - so I write a post card to him - ask to use his name on my board - with a guarantee - he never hasta come to a meeting - or give me any money - Edward Gorey says yes. I don’t know if he ever actually sees Murder. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 10 #2 1986 - Murder begins - with Valda speaking the opening monologue è written by David - and with Misha as Smith the butler è #1 The sword gleams near the still body of the woman in white. The door opens slowly. Mrs. Smith - the temporary secretary of Lord and Lady Smith - shuts the door behind herself - turns and espying the woman in white - groans - reels and falls into a dead faint at her feet. Smith - the butler - having heard the muffled thud - of the fainting falling temporary secretary - hurries in. Surveying the scene he spies the sword and gasping and going and grasping - the cold metal he tilts toward the two ladies lying motionless before him. Smith stops stock still at the sound of approaching footsteps. The door opens slowly. Lady Smith sweeps in - starts at the grizzly spectacle and in a hoarse whisper lisps - Thmith - what have you done? The butler recognizes at once - the compromising nature of his position. He is found alone with two dead women - a weapon - and worse - he is after all the butler. The sword falls from his clasp - with a clatter. Striving to escape - Smith and Lady Smith collide and she collapses - as he slips away. Miss Smith sits up - aroused by the brouhaha - struggles to her feet - and backing away from the woman in white - stumbles over the supine figure - of Lady Smith. Already distraught - a shrill shriek issues from her pale lips as she falters - and crumples prostrate - into the arms of young Smith-Smith - a neighbor. He - having heard commotion and seen Smith the butler belting - suspects foul play. He scoops up Miss Smith - and carries her forthwith - to the chaise - as the door opens slowly. Lord Smith and his sometimes mistress Smithie the upstairs maid - meeting for a short tryst -in the sitting room - have eyes only - for each other. Young Smith-Smith having arranged Miss Smith on the chaise hides himself behind it. The Lord and Smithie - locked in an embrace - notice neither the neighbor Smith-Smith nor the stirring Lady Smith. She - rising by fits and starts - starts toward the oblivious couple. Pulling a pair of gardening shears from her girdle of gardening tools - she stabs Lord Smith - her faithless philandering spouse - and faints dead away - over the fallen body. Smithie races for the door - opening it just as Isadora Smith - come for a sudden visit - enters. Smithie slams the door - catching the visitors scarf - strangling Isadora as the door opens revealing the twin Smith sisters. They - starting serenely into the room - at once sense danger - and race to secret themselves behind the chaise - displacing young Smith-Smith - as Miss Smith sits up - and the door is opened by Sir Smythe - a family friend, who spots Lady Smith - with whom he is secretly in love - and placing his ear to her heart and hearing the beat beat beat - that belies her seeming lifelessness - lifts her body and bears it to the chaise as Miss Smith - come to consciousness - races for the door and collapses - into the arms of Dr. Schmidt the German psychiatrist. Smitty the blacksmith - come after Lady Smith knocks into Dr. Schmidt hurling Miss Smith - into the arms of the rising Lord Smith - not yet quite dead - who falters at the flung dead weight and falls as Dr. Schmidt pivots and punches Smitty - who punches back. The deaf dowager - Granny Smith - enters and is downed and pinned by the knocked down Dr. Schmidt - while Smitty seeing signs of life - in Miss Smith - with whom he is secretly in love - gathers her up into his arms and arrives at the chaise as Lady Smith stirs and stumbles toward the door. Lord Smith - not yet quite dead - pulls himself to his feet - and terrified by the terrified Lady Smith - who thinks he is his ghost and faints dead away - faints dead away. Reverend Smith - come to tea - kneels to pray. The blind Mrs. Reverend Smith - not noticing her kneeling spouse - spills over him - and tumbles in a graceless heap. Miss Smith - regaining her senses - leaps from the chaise screaming. Smitty - attending her is knocked to the floor. Lady Smith startled into consciousness starts for help. Lord Smith - not yet quite dead - dies. Dr. Schmidt revives and tries to rise. The blind Mrs. Reverend Smith - trying to right herself - knocks Dr. Schmidt over - as Granny Smith rolls out from under. Sir Smythe - meanwhile - has gone for help taking with him for safeties sake - the twin Smith sisters. He arrives with them - and Detective Inspector Smith of Scotland yard - as the Reverend Smith helps right old Granny Smith. Lady Smith and Miss Smith kneel in prayer - as Detective Inspector Smith approaches the woman in white. Lifting the sword - he surveys the scene - and says - who is this woman? David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 11

#2 Misha - é - as Dr. Jekyll - transforms - í to Mr. Hyde - duets with frightened lady friend of the night - ç Ivy Peterson - and dies - escapes his coffin to become - tubercular Camille ì who coughs - and swoons - duets with lover Armand -and dies - escapes from coffin - etcetera etcetera. #1 Valda says - Misha says to her - in class at the barre - maybe he should come back 1 more time - at the enda Murder? #2 Like Alexander Grant’s character - Valda says Misha says - in the Frederick Ashton Royal Ballet production of La Fille Mal Gardee. What does Valda think - Misha asks. #1 Valda thinks Misha is right - she says. Good idea - Valda says. Okay - David says. He invents a final character entrance for Misha. In Made in U.S.A. - after the death of the Woman in White - Misha re-enters in coveralls - as a stagehand - before the curtain - to clean up - and adjust the final stage image. He turns the face of the Woman in White -toward the camera - and she has transformed to Valda - and stagehand Misha exits - to the last bars of Berlioz Symphonie Funebre. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 12 #2 - 1986 - TRANSPARENT MEANS FOR TRAVELLING LIGHT - NY Times review excerpt - November 21, 1986 - by JENNIFER DUNNING

#1 Transparent Means for Traveling Light - set to a score by John Cage - is movement theater for 8 dancers - and a good deal of stage equipment. The influence of Power Boothe - an artist - who frequently collaborates - with Mr. Gordon - is evident here - for the choreographer's simple - but gorgeous manipulation - of stage space and light is as important - as his manipulation of dancers' bodies.

There are odd but compelling interactions - between the 2 elements - as when a dancer dangles from a rising boom - and when a drop lowers horizontally - to block out the dancers' lower bodies. There is a dark undercurrent of drama here - too - most memorably in Lyn Carroll's quietly bizarre costumes- and in Mr. Gordon's repeated pulling - of two of the male dancers into the wings. The dance builds to an exciting visual triumph in its closing moments, when high black flats move in on the dancers - creating an enclosed amphitheater - lit brilliant yellow at the back - that both diminishes and enlarges them. Cage score consisted of the 1942 ''Credo in Us' -' the 1965 ''Rozart Mix'' - and ''Collection of Rocks No. 2,'' commissioned by the company. Company includes Keith Marshall, Dean Moss, Chuck Finlon, Karen Stokes, Shona Wilson, Robert Wood, Scott Cunningham, Cynthia Oliver, Karen Graham Quinn. #2 David’s plan - in ‘85/’86 - he tells manager/producer Alyce Dissette - is to tour more economically - and carrying less weight. She grins. He shops for vintage mesh tank tops and tights. Designs - cuts’n pins mesh - net and patterned’n solid color see through fabrics. Lynn Carroll sews costumes. Alyce persuades fashion photographer Andrew Eccles - to photograph dancers for 1st time. David commissions a new John Cage work - Collection of Rocks #2 - to be played on borrowable boom boxes - in performance - David says - in every venue. Alyce grins. Artist Power Boothe agrees to use available stage paraphernalia - in each venue. Insteada designing a “set” - raise’n lower light pipes - scrims’n curtains - and use local rented stage olios. Save money - David says. Alyce grins. #1 At BAM opera house - sounda Cage begins - as orchestra pit rises to stage level. David’s on it with boom boxes. Curtain rises. Downstage light pipe rises - followed - by next light pipe - creating a path of light. David carries boom boxes on stage - as scrim rises. Another curtain - another light pipe and another. Dancers enter - to recorded Credo in Us on sound system - original instruments include - Cage says - piano - muted gongs - tin cans - electric buzzer’n tom-toms. 1 performer operates radio’n phonograph. Plays something "classic" - Cage says - such as - Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Transparent Means is performed in USA and in Japan - with happy results - but economy ain’t 1 of ‘em - David admits. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 13 #2 - 1986 - THE SEASONS - NY Times review excerpt - November 21, 1986 - THE DANCE: DAVID GORDON'S PICK UP COMPANY by JENNIFER DUNNING #1 David Gordon offered an ultimately very satisfying dance experience on Wednesday - when he and his Pick Up Company opened a 4 performance engagement as part of the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Here was a weaving together of a highly developed and refined humanism with the minimalism of the postmodernist era. Mr. Gordon has merged the theatrical and the abstract to make a theater without words. There is sometimes slight monotony to the repetition in his dance and occasionally it is off-putting in its persistently ironic overtone. #2 Yes - David says - he does take more pleasure - in repetition than his critics’n yes - if his tongue’s in his cheek - how d’ya take him seriously? How does he? #1 But Mr. Gordon's dance - Ms Dunning writes - is a rich, warm and rigorously plotted weave - and his vision - a grand and comic one. That vision was at its most expansive in The Seasons - she writes - a new work for 10 dancers to a score whose layerings and overlaps - are major elements in the work. The piece begins with a taped homily by Valda Setterfield - I ignore winter - Miss Setterfield announces - with a grand elan one would have thought dead - and gone in this post-Sitwellian age. The mood is set for a fluid - teasing summoning-up - of the four seasons. Each passing and arrival is signaled by changes in Chuck Hammer's collage of best bits from classical and popular music. #2 Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – 1725 - Lovin Spoonful’s Summer in the City – 1966 - Gershwin’s Summertime – 1934 - and Weill’s - September Song – 1938. #1 Each season has its mood and pace - creating stage pictures that are sometimes scattered - and a little self-indulgent - but always full of interest. Changes in colored overlays - to Santo Loquasto's witty - but rather too pretty - white costumes are another device. #2 Yes, David admits - Seasons is a weird piece to make - sorta archiveographical - before I’m ready to deal with time and loss - and - perhaps I still ain’t - maybe never gonna be - David says - and yes - the costumes - are awful pretty - but I love working with Santo - and some stage pictures are a little too pretty - but then - he says - they make good photos è. But then - he says - Ms. Dunning too prettily ends her review. The high point, Ms. Dunning writes, is a mysterious 'winter' duet for Mr. Gordon and Miss Setterfield - who pick their way about the stage - with slow, deliberate steps - as if through snow - on a simple voyage that has the air of a life journey. Actually - I had a bad bone spur in the sole of my right foot - and hadda tread very carefully - in cotton lace-up ankle boots - with thick soft rubber soles. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 14 #1 1986 - opera Reynard is played by clowns - Stravinsky wrote - or dancers - or acrobats - on stage with orchestra behind. Or - dancers on stage - n’singers in pit - with musicians. Spoleto Festival says no. David never directs opera - singers hafta see the conductor. Dancers manipulate 8’ tall inflatable animals. Singers hafta watch for cues - David says - while they move - between and beneath Beni’s giant puppets. ç Artist Beni Montresor creates the puppets - costumes and lighting design - which are - collectively - David says - ê - the stars of the show.

#2 1986 - NY Times review - by Tim Page - excerpted by David - of 1916 opera/ballet by Igor Stravinsky - at Spoleto Festival. “A relief to turn to - Stravinsky's Renard - after intermission ... not so much an opera as a 20-minute folk tale - and it received an amusingly mythic production. Men’n women dressed in white - carry preposterous balloons - representing a cat - a rooster - a fox and a goat - around the stage. A little like a Monty Python sketch – stylized - brightly colored - determinedly goofy - but complimentary - to the plaintive folkish quality of - Stravinsky's music. Singers were Peter Gillis - David Barrell - Ruben Broitman and Stephan Kirchgraber. The adept conductor Mark Stringer - director David Gordon. #1 Gian Carlo Menotti - artistic director of Spoleto - in Charleston, SC - who’s own opera precedes intermission - is not as happy with the production - as the critic - or the audience - David says - and no - Beni is sorry to say - Mr. Menotti don’t wanna meet David - Mr. Menotti is having a nap - and David is never invited back. #2 1986 - Pick Up Company board offers - Executive Director job - to Alyce Dissette è Alyce says - if the board makes a financial commitment to her - she says - they hafta make - the same commitment to David - who makes the work - she says - and Alyce Dissette gets - for David Gordon - from the Pick Up Performance Company - his 1st 52 week dance salary. 1987 - David Gordon gets an idea ê to create movement material constructed for touring specific U.S. presenting venues.

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 15 #1 Tour new work relating to geographic venues - he tells manager/producer Alyce Dissette. Whattaya think? 1988/89 - unstoppable Alyce creates United States pilot program - with 37 investing regional presenters. #2 For the United States Project - presenters are asked to send geographic info. Local foods - state birds. Photographs - maps’n travel brochures. Whatever - David says. Native artists - authors - composers. Celebrity sons and daughters. Whatever - David says. Sections were made and named for locations - and titles of sections changed - and changed again - as the tour went on #1 Pick Up Company tours’n tours United States - good. Presenters’n audiences enjoy work - good. Enjoy the references David chooses - good. Or - presenters’n audiences are unhappy - bad. Unhappy with references David uses. Unhappy with how much or how little of it there is - Or where it appears inna program. And who - they complain - gets better - or more - stage time’n attention - bad. #2 @ Judson Memorial Church, NYC 1990 - @ Dance St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 1990 @ University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 1989 - @ Dance Affiliates - Philadelphia, PA 1989 @ State Univ of NY, Purchase, 1989 Program PDF - @ Davidson College, Davidson, NC 1989 Program PDF @ McFarland Auditorium, The International Theatrical Arts Society, Dallas, TX 1989 Program PDF @ Center for the Performing Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1989 Program PDF @ Houston Society for the Performing Arts, Cullen Theatre, Houston, TX 1989 @ The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. 1989 Program PDF @ Mandeville Theatre, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 1989 Program PDF @ Univ of Washington, Seattle, WA 1989 - @ Kimball Hall, Univ of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 1989 Program PDF @ McAllister Auditorium, San Antonio, TX 1989 - @ Kimo Theatre, Albuquerque, NM 1989 - @ Univ of California, Boulder, CO 1989 - @ Portland State University, Portland, OR 1989 - Program PDF @ Theatre Artaud, Lively Arts at Stanford, San Francisco, CA 1989 - Program PDF - @ Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 1989 - Program PDF @ John van Duzer Theatre, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 1989 - Program PDF - @ Pitman Theatre, Alverno College, Milwaukee, WI 1989 Program PDF - @ Hancher Auditorium, Univ of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 1989 Program PDF - @ Lory Student Ctr, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 1989 Program PDF - @ Kiel Opera House, St. Louis, MO 1989 Program PDF - @ Hopkins Center Theatre, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 1988 Program PDF - @ Murphy Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 1988 @ Harvard Summer Dance Center at the Loeb Drama Center, MA 1988 @ Theatre Artaud, San Francisco, CA 1988

@ Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France 1988 ê @ Next Wave Festival, Bklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY 1988 ê David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 16

#1 1988 - David begins to begin - to stop performing. Stage useta be - a transformative space - a place he can be who he ain’t - behave and misbehave - look lotsa kindsa ways - paint his eyes bigger - and his nose smaller - till the curtain falls - and then - the curtain falls’n he can exit - the stage door - as David - but he ain’t somebody else onna stage - anymore - he can only be who he is - an old guy getting older - so - at the enda the ‘80s - he startsta choreograph himself outta his work - and - inna last 20 yearsa his career - he’s only in partsa some pieces - and only in some pieces - far and farther apart - till the Pirandello - until Beginning of the End of the... in 2010 - at Joyce Soho - last time - he says - but his real end begins - David says - inna United States Project - ê enda the ‘80s ... David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 17 #2 - at the enda dancing with Valda - to Slaughter on Tenth Avenue - the David character - gets shot - he says - and dies. #1 Truth be told - David is not unhappy when United States tour - ends.

#2 The only Slaughter on Tenth Avenue reference David has - when he startsta work on NY section of United States project for the BAM stage - is the technicolor dance - danced by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen - in Words and Music - which David sees when he’s 12 in 1948. It’s not until 2016 - as he works on ARCHIVEOGRAPHY that he discovers there was a 1936 Broadway version - the year that he was born - and a 1939 film version - choreographed by George Balanchine. David mighta not been so cavalier with his use of Slaughter - David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 18

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 19

photos by Andrew Eccles VALDA SETTERFIELD é and DEAN MOSS é dance to performance excerpts from - SAN FRANCISCO - & - I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO #1 1987 - MADE IN U.S.A. - Mikhail Baryshnikov says - after commissioning 2 ballets - from David Gordon - for ABT - Field, Chair and Mountain - in 1984 - and Murder - in 1986 - why don’t we do a show - he says - ê for Public Television?

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 20

#2 1987 - MADE IN U.S.A. - David says sure. He always says sure to Misha. But if ya serious - David says - don’t tell me - betta tell Sue and Rhoda - If YOU tell’em - YOU want it to happen - it’ll happen. ç Suzanne Weil - and Rhoda Grauer. (see ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 1) Misha does - and Rhoda and Sue do - and it happens. #1 David Gordon’s Made in U.S.A for P.B.S. Dance in America - begins with a new duet - for Valda Setterfield and Mikhail Baryshnikov. David is in London making Bach and Offenbach - for Extemporary Dance Theatre.

#2 David arranges rehearsal space - ç at The Place - in Dukes Road - and Misha and Valda fly to London. Misha wantsa talk - he says - while they dance - so David poses questions during rehearsal. Valda and Misha improvise answers about dancing - in Britain - and Russia - and America. #1 Rehearsals are audiotaped - edited and adapted - by David - to create a working script. 1986/87 - Memorized conversation’n choreography - is video taped in Los Angeles - ê - against green screen.

#2 Rocky Pinciotti designs’n draws images è animated in postproduction - by John Sanborn’n Mary Perillo. #1 David works with ABT accompanist Lynn Stanford. Lynn improvises bits of piano music - and - David chooses. David sits behind Lynn inna recording studio’n signals - when to play’n - when to stop - by squeezing’n unsqueezing Lynn’s middle.

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 21

#2 A single metal folding chair - is used - in Misha and Valda duet. ç Becomes drawing of itself - and of Misha on his way into ê TV Nine Lives.

#1 So - Valda’n Misha meet - at the beginning of Made in U.S.A. - on a drawn sea - onna way- to America - step outta a drawn ship - into a drawn room - talk together - in scripted dialogue - culled from improvised recorded conversation - and dance with 1 real metal folding chair - with piano accompaniment - improvised and recorded in post production. And they appear - at the enda the duet - seated in a drawing - of an audience - as the drawing - of a curtain descends - on a drawing - of a stage - and they applaud - and exit the theater - with Misha carrying a drawing of the folding chair.

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 22 #2 1988 - FOUR STORIES The Second Avenue Dance Company - at NY University’s Tisch School of the Arts - directed by Larry Rhodes and Clarice Marshall - commissions a new work by David. Jack Anderson writes in the NY Times - David Gordon’s new Four Stories is based on gossipy narratives written by Mr. Gordon - David reads - and read by Meg Sewell. Four Stories wittily describes labyrinthine love affairs. Indeed - the stories were funnier than the choreography - which required 10 dancers to jostle one another - and pair off to jaunty music - by Paul Bowles. What made Four Stories successful - David reads - was its overall spirit of nuttiness - Jack Anderson writes. David remembers nothing about this piece - other than reading the writing of Jane Bowles - and about her life with husband Paul Bowles - and listening to Bowles music. He remembers nothing about the 4 stories - except ’s best friend - NYU student actress Meg Sewell - records the stories.

#1 ç 1950s - Valda Setterfield - British dancer - is a student - as a teenager -

ç of Marie Rambert - at Mercury Theatre - in London.

ç1960s - Richard Alston - British dancer - is a student - as a young man - of Valda Setterfield at Merce Cunningham Studio in NY

#2 1988 - MATES - Richard Alston - ì - Artistic Director - of Rambert Company - in London - asks Valda to guest - and asks David to make a new piece for Valda - and for the company. David choreographs to Astor Piazzolla tangos - and writes text - recorded and spoken by Valda - over and under - music. Valda’s costume - David says - designed by Antony McDonald - is better than the dance - the music and the text - as he remembers. #1 1988 - MY FOLKS video - co-produced w/BBC 4 - British TV - is taped during more than 1 year - as we run outta money - and in more than 1 NY studio space - ê - with more than 1 cast change. David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 23

David Gordon - ‘80s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 3 24 #2 Dragging - a standing or sitting dancer - across the stage - on a canvas cloth - Power Boothe’s 1982 painted striped canvas - happens for the 1st time in 1984 - ç in My Folks - to Klezmer music - and happens - the dragging happens again -10 years later - in 1994 - new cloths - inna travel scene - in - Shlemiel the First - giant rocks’n trees - are pulled and - ê - Klezmer musicians playing instruments are pulled -

happens again - same dragging - same old striped cloths - in 2004 - ç in Dancing Henry Five - but this time to William Walton music - when the British are pulled across the stage - in “sailing ships” - from England to France - to fight the battle of Agincourt. I seem to think of the fabric - or the dragging action - or remember it - or wanna do it again - David says - every 10 years - but the last Shlemiel productions - and the last cloth drags - happen in 2010 and 2011 - probably shoulda waited till 2014.

ë1989