APPALACHIAN SPRING

[rg]

The attached scan of a reel-to-reel tape recording of Copland's APPALACHIAN SPRING indicates that the release wanted to suggest Graham's well-known staging of the score, but either Graham would not cooperate or was not asked, so the result is a real jumble.

The woman, suggesting the Pioneer Woman, but positioned as the Bride might be in Graham's dance, is dressed more like a dancer in Doris Humphrey's SHAKERS.

The wood frame 'house' - suggesting the skeletal sheme Noguchi devised for Graham - is more makeshift and cliche, with a worm-eaten leaf of some sort tacked up on the gable's peak. The pitchfork propped on the left suggests references to Grant Wood's well-known painting, 'American Gothic.'

The participation of the London Symphony is clear, but so is, in the small print at the bottom, the fact that the item was 'printed in the U.S.A.'

[papeetepatrick]

but either Graham would not cooperate or was not asked

Certainly one of the two, oh Lord! And the rocking chair! Maybe Mr. Kinkaid would be able to use this for his Thanksgiving market. At lesser flea markets everywhere...

The woman, suggesting the Pioneer Woman, but positioned as the Bride might be in Graham's dance, is dressed more like a dancer in Doris Humphrey's SHAKERS.

rg, is the Humphreys work on tape or DVD? If you've seen it, what's it like? Did they also use the same Shaker tune or others? I'd also like to know if Graham ever did the Pioneer Woman herself. The Pioneer Woman clearly is the more Graham-like character, only part-mortal perhaps, but the two films I've seen (and only part of the 1944 one, I think) both have Graham as the Bride, of course. I thought it might have to do with height, as the dancers I've seen do Pioneer Woman have been tall and needed to tower over (however quietly) over the others. This might be in the McDonegh, which I now have, but have not had time for yet, and the Notebooks don't include any for Appalachian Spring.

[rg]

re: Graham's dancing in her APPALACHIAN SPRING - i've never heard of her performing "The Pioneering Woman."

re: SHAKERS, BT member Amy R. would be able to address the film status of SHAKERS in more detail, as you see below she was the 'video director' involved in the Humphrey project indicated in the cat. entry from the NYPL dance col. below. i'm not sure if this series, released now 11 years ago on videocassette, is still on the market:

The Shakers [videorecording] / presented by the National Doris Humphrey Society in collaboration with Princeton Book Company, Publishers, Momenta Performing Arts Company, Ernestine Stodelle and Reusch Dance Video ; artistic direction and coaching commentaries by Ernestine Stodelle ; video director, Amy Reusch ; project director, Stephanie Clemens ; choreography by Doris Humphrey (1931), reconstructed by Ernestine Stodelle in 1986.

Pennington, N.J. : Princeton Book Company, Publishers, c1997. (91 min.) : sd., col.

Series :Source experience: enriching the Humphrey legacy.

Notes :A Dance Horizons Video.

Project made possible by a grant from the National Initiative to Preserve American Dance (NIPAD), a project underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Danced by Stephanie Clemens (eldress) ; Debra Cannarella, June Hines, Barbara Hausler, Shannon Buckholz, Kimberly Pfaffmann, Raphaelle Ziemba (women) ; Judith Chitwood, Cathy Connal, Regina Wilken, Larry Ippel, Denise Nakaji, Cameron Jarrett (men).

Preparatory coaching, Gail Corbin, assisted by Siobhan Simisky and Karim Simisky ; final coaching, Ernestine Stodelle ; music, traditional ; costumes after original designs by Pauline Lawrence ; lighting, Mike Dutka.

Videotaped in rehearsal at the Doris Humphrey Memorial Theater, Academy of Movement and Music, Oak Park, Ill., during the 5th annual Doris Humphrey Technique Workshop, coordinated by the National Doris Humphrey Society in August 1994, and in performance at the Doris Humphrey Memorial Theater on August 6, 1994, at the conclusion of the workshop.

Restaging of Doris Humphrey's The Shakers, performed by students at the 5th annual Doris Humphrey Technique Workshop in Oak Park, Ill. Footage from Gail Corbin's preparatory rehearsals with the students provides a detailed breakdown and analysis of the choreography. Ernestine Stodelle's coaching, given after she had viewed a dress rehearsal, is illustrated with still photographs depicting the Shakers' life and arts, and rehearsal and performance excerpts. A full performance of the work concludes the tape. This tape is not intended as a means of learning the choreography, nor as a replacement for the notation score or a coach. All works by Doris Humphrey are copyrighted, and permission to perform them must be obtained from her son Charles Humphrey Woodford.

additionally the NYPL dance coll. has a number of other historic films in its catalogue.

[atm711]

The woman, suggesting the Pioneer Woman, but positioned as the Bride might be in Graham's dance, is dressed more like a dancer in Doris Humphrey's SHAKERS.

....or Whistler's Mother ??

[rg]

indeed, i failed to mention the obvious Whistler connection, which i put in a group email to a number of colleagues, for their thoughts: on wag wrote back that he whole thing could just as easily be 'a still from PSYCHO.' wish i'd said that...