David Gordon ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 1 #1 In 1973 - Grand Union gets a 1st NYSCA grant for $2400.00 - to produce 1 weeka home town performances. Instead - the group rents a space for 2 months - April’n May - to produce their own performances - and the work of artist friends. Grand Union does 17 performances insteada 7 - and David Gordon decides to do a solo performance in May. #2 David don’t consider what he’s gonna do for an entire solo evening. He is used to performing set material with Valda - and company. Used to improvising with G.U. Not used to being alone on stage. st Not since 1 3 Judson solos. (see ‘60s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 1) #1 David notices - his peers begin to claim turf. I - soMeone says - was 1st - to do something something. I did it before she did - soMeone says. My version was definitive - soMeone else says. David begins his solo performance by rotating his index finger. He claiMs he invented the rotating index finger. David’s rotating index finger predates all circular movement - he says - ethnic spinning - double’n triple pirouettes - pelvic grinds - twirling pony tails and sung “rounds”. He maKes a list n’takes props’n costume changes - and music - for his solo. HE SPEAKS -SINGS’N DANCES - FOR AN HOUR OR SO. DAVID DON’T COUNT ON HOW SCARED HE WILL BE - AND HE NEVER DOES IT AGAIN - except for the 1st Spilled Milk concert when Valda has the accident. David Gordon ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 2 MAY 1973 SOLO PERFORMANCE #2 IN 1974 - NYSCA REWARDS GRAND UNION’S AMBITIOUS PRODUCING ADVENTURE - BY CUTTING THE NEXT YEAR’S GRANT TO $1800.00. WE DECIDED - NYSCA PROGRAM DIRECTOR SAYS - YOU ARE AN IMPROVISATIONAL COMPANY - YOU DON’T NEED MONEY TO REHEARSE. David Gordon ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 3 ALSO IN 1974 - RICHARD NIXON RESIGNS THE OFFICE - ê - OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. ALSO - JUNE 1974 - VALDA SETTERFIELD IS IN A CAR HIT BY A LONG ISLAND RAILROAD TRAIN. #1 David leaves by train for Washington DC - to guest perform with Trisha Brown and company at the Kennedy Center. Friend Norma Fire picks up 12-year-old Ain Gordon - inna morning - to spend the day with her. #2 Valda leaves 54 Charles Street inna suicide seat of a car - with a woman driver she don’t know - to look at a suMMer rental. Car is hit’n dragged by a Long Island Railroad train’n hits a telephone pole. Valda goes partially through the windshield. Found dazed and bloody in the car - she’s taken to hospital in Riverhead - Long Island. Manages to call Norma in New York. Valda says - I won’t be home today and would you mind putting the lamb chops back in the freezer? #1 Norma can’t get holda David in Washington till after Trisha Brown’s 1st evening performance. 1st Amtrak train to Penn Station is 5 inna morning. July of 2014 - Valda reminds him - he stays awake and dressed - to be safe. Watches MGM’s 1940 Pride and Prejudice onna Late Show on TV. Greer Garson’n Laurence Olivier - she says he said - till he can get a cab to the station to catch the 1st train to get to her. David calls Ain and Norma from Penn Station when he arrives - and gets a Long Island Railroad train to Riverhead - and cabs to the hospital. He says he’s Valda Setterfield’s husband and where is she? She smiles - he says - as he kneels at her bedside to take her hand. #2 I’ve been worried about you - Valda says. Is Ain okay? She smiles. You must be hungry - she says - after such a long trip. There’s fresh strawberries in that closet - she points. Would you mind taking the strawberries home? It’s a pity to waste them. Oh - and your white shawl collared cardigan I borrowed is in the closet too - she says. David Gordon ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 4 #1 Valda is more out of it then she knows - or David knows. She don’t remember the lamb chop phone call. She remembers the strawberries - and the off duty nurse who pours warm water on her belly - n’gently massages till she can pee. To avoid the catheter - she says - the nurse says. A less nice nurse wheels her to a room. Stands her up’n abandons her - to exit and take x-rays. Valda is cold - and terrified to stand alone.. #2 David - his back to Valda - opens the metal doorsa the narrow hospital closet. He sees the bloody white sweater’n smashed boxes - of squashed strawberries. He don’t say anything. Valda says - d’ya see the strawberries? We stopped to buy ‘em at a roadside stand - they looked so good - she says. David turns around. Valda has such a lotta stitches in her face. He startsta cry. #1 Don’t worry - Valda Setterfield says - I’ll be okay” she says - better get me vitamin E for the scars. ALSO IN 1974 – SPILLED MILK VARIATIONS IS PERFORMED - ê - AT PAULA COOPER GALLERY IN SOHO. #2 1974 - Valda’s supposeta be in Spilled Milk concert. She’s in Riverhead hospital after the train/car accident. David visits her in the day n’performs inna evening. #1 He is surprised to learn, when he sees the mailer, he performed solo 1 of the 2 evenings wearing dark glasses. Surprised he perforMed solo. Surprised at the darK glasses. #2 July of 1973, Valda and David are in Paris. WalKing’n worKing daily - David develops gestural hand action inna streetsa Paris. Teaches hand’n walKing in Spilled Milk to Valda’n 8 dancers. David Gordon ‘70s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2 5 #1 1974 - Valda don’t perforM in - or see - Spilled Milk after the accident. Spilled Milk is perforMed 2 times at Paula Cooper Gallery. David never does it again. Valda and her nutritionist - Dr. PressMan - believe in Vitamin E for scars. The Riverhead Hospital doctor doesn’t. David sneaKs VitaMin E to Valda inna hospital. He asKs friend Florence Rothauser to drive ‘em hoMe in her too small car. He don’t wanna wait an extra day to taKe her hoMe in an ambulance. Ain sees Valda arrive froM his bedrooM window. Inna hall Ain leans over the bannister. Watches Valda cliMb 2 flightsa stairs’n stop to rest at each landing. #2 Valda begins to realize how little she can do. After 4 or 5 days - she thinks - as she gets better in a way she gets worse. She can’t sit up in bed by herself - and she can’t get outta bed without help. David straddles her - hands behind her neck to pull her into a sitting position. He cliMbs off’n takes her hands - pulls her gently to standing. She smiles at Ain but he’s afraid to touch her. #1 She finds a paperback to read. She don’t remember reading it. She opens the “new” booK. Finds Valda Setterfield written inside the cover. She cries. David helps her dress to go to a dance concert with her friend Meg Harper. She’s terrified - she tells David - when she suddenly realizes - she can’t remember - how she got there. There are long and frequent periods of not Knowing where I aM - she says. Or how I got here. Or there. Or wherever it is I aM. Sudden or loud noises - frighten her - activities in the street are paralyzing. #2 Before the accident, Valda decides to leave Merce CunninghaM's coMpany. She dances with hiM for 10 years. She’s alMost 40. What’ll she do - she says - if she’s not a dancer at all? What’ll David do if Valda’s not a dancer? #1 The accident happens in early suMMer of 1974. Facial scars are healing with vitamin E by the enda suMMer. Valda goes bacK to Merce for a project she previously coMMitted to. But she don’t pick up MoveMent as quick as she useta - she thinks. Merce says not to worry - like any injury it taKes time - but he agrees with her. Yes - she’s slower. Valda is undone. #2 What if Valda could learn something new? Something she never did before? So she don’t have anything to compare it to? Something new’n hard to do - so her sturdy British resilience will kick in? Sounds like a Hollywood movie screenplay but David has no other plan. #1 1974 - the Cunningham company’s on tour but Valda has a studio key. David convinces her to walk with him from Charles Street’n 7th Avenue to Westbeth. Traffic bewilders her. She needsta rest on a wood bench at Abingdon Square. A wood bench is inna studio. He suggests they do “he loves me - he loves me not” - from Giselle. He suggests’n she humors him. She mimes flower plucking. They move along the bench till he falls off. Valda laughs at him. He’s thrilled to make her laugh. They go to the studio again’n again’n use the bench each time. Sit on it - stand on it - move around it. Cunninghams return’n Lucinda Childs generously lends ‘em her brand new studio at 541 Broadway. No bench. There’s blue metal folding chairs - from Buffalo Roadhouse - a 7th Avenue chicken wing joint. Lucinda buys ‘em at the enda the outdoor season. Gonna use the chairs - she says - for audiences - to see her work in her new studio. David and Valda still have - in 2016 - 5 of Lucinda’s blue chairs. #2 David has no therapeutic plan - and he’s not making art.