Performance! The SAA Performing Arts Roundtable encourages the exchange of information on historical WINTER 2010/2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE SA A PERFORMING ARTS ROUNDTABLE and contemporary documentation of music, dance, theater, motion pictures, and other performance media. I N S I D E THIS ISSUE: From the Page 3 Co-Chair Ellen Bar on Page 4 the making of Opus Jazz Diaghilev at Page 10 the V&A Building the Page 16 new BAM Archives Meet the Page 19 2010-2011 Steering Committee Members’ Page 20 News Editor’s Page 23 Corner “TU… TU NE VOUDRAIS PAS QU’ON… QU’ON S’ORGANISE DANS LE N O I R ? " P A G E 2 Welcome Back! Welcome to the first issue of dancer turned film producer, Finally, in a view from the field, Performance! of 2010-2011. We Ellen Bar, chronicles the long Cynthia Tobar interviews are excited to bring you a odyssey (and research) it took Brooklyn Academy of Music revamped version of the to bring her film adaptation of Archivist, Sharon Lerner, about newsletter that draws on the 1958 Jerome Robbins‘ new developments at the BAM traditions started and main- ballet, N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, to Archives. tained by George Bain (editor the screen. We hope that you will enjoy from 2001 to 2009). In addition On the international front, we the expanded coverage and be to Performing Arts Roundtable are fortunate to have exhibition inspired to send in news, news, we are pleased to bring co-curator, Jane Pritchard, walk articles, and images from your you three feature-length pieces. us through the epic undertaking own collections! In our opening article, we hear of Diaghilev and the Golden Age Helice Koffler, Editor firsthand about performing arts of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929, archives being put to creative held this past fall at the Victoria Jeni Dahmus, Assistant Editor use as New York City Ballet & Albert Museum. Image Credits Front cover: Patti LuPone in a Juilliard production taken from V&A blog post by Jane Pritchard, of Jean Genet's The Maids, directed by Gene Seeing Red, 17 December 2010. Lesser, 1970; photo by Stephen Aaron. Courtesy Page 13: Sotheby‘s auction photograph by Nesta of the Juilliard School Archives. MacDonald, 1968. V&A Theatre & Performance Page 2: N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz DVD cover; image Collections. from http://opusjazz.com/. Page 15: Serge Diaghilev, circa 1924. V&A Theatre Page 3: Hand-colored etching, Mrs. Bunn as Queen & Performance Collections. Elizabeth, published 1828. New York Public Library Other images from the V&A collections taken Digital Library ID# 1156844. from http://collections.vam.ac.uk/. Pages 4, 6, 8-9: All still photographs from the film Page 10: Charcoal drawing on paper by Laura N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz by Jody Lee Lipes; images Knight of Diaghilev watching a performance of Le from http://opusjazz.com/. Chant du Rossignol. V&A Museum number S.460- Page 7: N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz shooting script 1979. Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, image courtesy of Ellen Bar. London. N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz DVD cover Pages 10-11, 13-15: Unless otherwise noted, Page 13: Nijinsky‘s earrings from Schéhérazade, images of objects from the exhibition, Diaghilev 1910. V&A Museum number S.405-1984. Photo © and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. taken from the exhibition Web site. Page 14: Costume from Polovtsian Dances from Page 10: Image of installation of theatre cloths for Prince Igor, 1909. V&A Museum number S.589- the exhibition, Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the 1980. Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, Ballets Russes 1909-1929, taken from V&A blog London. post by Jane Pritchard, Installation of the Cloths, 5 Painting, Harlequin in Carnaval, by W. S. Lakeman, August 2010. early 20th century. V&A Museum number S.433- Page 11: Diaghilev and Stravinsky, Spain, 1921. 2000. Cyril W. Beaumont bequest. Photo © From V&A Theatre & Performance Archive. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Page 12: Entrance to the exhibition, Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929, (Continued on page 23) PERFORMANCE! WINTER 2010/2011 P A G E 3 Message From the Co-Chair by Leilani Dawson Thanksgiving approaches as vation of 78 rpm discs and cylinder recordings, and a I write this; I find it fitting school of music archive. Two of these posters, on the given how often I am Altman archives and on cylinder recordings and 78 rpm reminded of all the ways in discs, are available on the SAA Web site. which my tenure filling in as PAR‘s Co-Chair is made Earlier this fall, the Steering Committee endorsed two thanks to our past officers session proposals for the 2011 SAA conference. The and the other current members of the Steering first, ―Changing Trends in Collecting, Preserving, and Committee. Our former Co-Chairs Peggy Alexander Accessing Performing Arts Archives,‖ features our own and Andy Wentink and outgoing Steering Committee Cynthia Tobar and D. Claudia Thompson, as well as member Lisa Hooper have my gratitude for the solid Kathleen Sabogal from Carnegie Hall and Sharon Lerner foundation they have passed on. I hope you will all join of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Meanwhile I believe me in welcoming our new Steering Committee mem- that the second — ―Hosting a Virtual and Accessible bers Anastasia Karel and Cynthia Tobar, my fellow Co- Session at Your Next Conference,‖ featuring Daria Chair, D. Claudia Thompson, and Jeni Dahmus, our new D‘Arienzo, Dean Weber, Scott Pitol, and Debra Kimok Assistant Newsletter Editor. Finally, Helice Koffler not — will help the Steering Committee plan business only returns as Web Liaison, but has also taken up the meetings that all Roundtable members can access. Editor‟s postscript: The PAR position of Newsletter Editor and has most recently The 2011 Program Committee has not yet an- session proposal for the nounced its choices, so I remain hopeful that we will volunteered to serve as the Roundtable‘s representative 2011 SAA conference has to SAA‘s Standards Committee. I am deeply grateful for be able to attend these two sessions next year in been approved! their efforts, and look forward to working with Chicago! everyone in the new year. The Steering Committee will soon start planning our I also want to thank everyone who attended the business meeting for Chicago; as always we welcome Roundtable‘s annual meeting at this year‘s SAA Annual your input. I like the idea of having several five-minute Conference in Washington, D.C. I found the discussion speed presentations as a few sections and roundtables thought-provoking! While the conference did not did in D.C., but if there is something you would like to feature as many official sessions directly related to the see presented or addressed at our meeting then please performing arts as some past years‘ conferences have, it let one of us know! did feature some hidden gems. I found the graduate Best wishes and a very happy holiday season and new student posters particularly interesting in this regard: year to you all! among the presentations were posters on Richard Altman‘s archives, local news radio broadcasts, preser- P A G E 4 USING ARCHIVES Rockin’Robbins: Ellen Bar on the Making of Opus Jazz An interview with Ellen Bar by Helice Koffler In June 1958, Jerome Robbins‘ ballet, N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, choreographed for his newly formed company, Ballets: USA, had its premiere in Spoleto, Italy at the Festival dei Due Mondi. Following closely on the heels of West Side Story, the new ballet, which featured a commissioned score by Robert Prince and backdrops by Ben Shahn, proved to be a hit with audiences both abroad and back at home. In spite of this initial success, Opus Jazz was performed infrequently over the years. In 2005, the New York City Ballet (NYCB) restaged the work, an experience that gave two of its cast members, Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi, the idea of adapting the ballet for film. One of the first hurdles they faced in getting Opus Jazz to the screen was winning the approval of the Robbins Rights Trust (which licenses the work of the choreographer) ― a process that involved extensive archival research. I spoke with Ellen by phone shortly after the film‘s official release on DVD and she was generous in sharing her experiences with using archives as part of the filmmaking process. The DVD package includes the director‘s cut of A Ballet in Sneakers: Jerome Robbins and Opus Jazz, a documentary commissioned by PBS that puts the ballet into historic context, as well as a United States Information Department short film, Jerome Robbins’ Ballets: USA, which includes footage of the original cast rehearsing the final movement of the ballet. ‖Statics‖ section with Georgina Why did you choose Opus Jazz to film? ―Wouldn‗t it be great if, like West Side Story, this Pazcoguin, Adam Hendrickson, What was the particular connection you was really out on the street and happening Andrew Veyette, and Robert and Sean [Suozzi] felt with the material? now.‖ Fairchild of NYCB Sean and I both danced in the revival in 2005. The fact that it‘s a ballet in sneakers makes it Actually City Ballet had never danced it ― it had totally viable to put somewhere besides the been presented only by Robbins‘ own company, stage, which doesn‘t happen with a lot of ballets. Ballets: U.S.A., and by Joffrey and ABT And, of course, West Side Story was a precedent.