Bennington Summer School of the Dance project : oral history, 1978-1979.

Scope and Contents

This project, sposored by Bennington College under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, includes interviews with choreographers, dancers, composers, musicians, administrators, teachers and students who participated in the Summer School of the Dance, 1934-1939, and the Summer School of the Arts, 1940-42, at Bennington College in Vermont. The artistic and intellectual atmosphere of the schools and their influence on the subsequent development of modern dance are discussed. Observations of key figures including Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, Louis Horst and Charles Weidman are recorded. Classes and performances are described as are the day-to-day experiences of participants. Participants and transcript pagination: Emily S. Alford, 58; Helen Alkire, 59; Louise Allen, 68; Fannie Aronson, 85; Bill Bales, 110; Martha Voice Bartos, 80; Jeanne Beaman, 53; Ben Belitt, 45; George Bockman, 62; Thomas Brockway, 47; Elizabeth Burtner, 65; Ethel Butler, 99; Marian van Tuyl Campbell, 145; Robert Coburn, 24; Dorothy McWilliams Cousins, 59; Hermine Sauthoff Davidson, 86; Vida Ginsberg Deming, 61; Jane Dudley, 34; Jane Eastham, 49; Jean Erdman, 75; Francis Fergusson, 72; Vivian Fine, 56; Tina Flade, 79; Catharine Osgood Foster, 86; Elizabeth Ruskay Fraenkel, 11; Eve Gentry, 112; Ray Green, 57; Lucien Hanks, 32; Nancy Hauser, 77; Polly Hertz, 45; Martha Hill, 146; Faith Reyher Jackson, 102; Hazel Johnson, 129; Louise Kloepper, 101; Helen Knight, 111; Eleanor Mayer Knox, 31; Esther Rosenblatt Landa, 38; Welland Lathrop, 65; Eleanor Lauer, 65; Ruth and Norman Lloyd, 218; Eugene Loring, 62; Otto Luening, 83; Sophie Maslow, 145; Claire Strauss Miller, 74; Barbara Morgan, 91; Ruth Murray, 110; Alwin Nikolais, 56; Lionel Nowak, 72; Kathleen Slagle Partlon, 83; Bernice Van Gelder Peterson, 140; Claudia Moore Read, 156; Helen Priest Rogers, 66; Mary Shaw Schlivek, 89; Bessie Schoenberg, 63; Beatrice Seckler, 71; Mary-Avrett Seelye, 85; Lee Sherman, 95; Gertrude Shurr, 69; Anna Sokolow, 56; Philip Stapp, 43; Natalie Disston Terrell, 43; Dorothy Bird Villard, 77; Betty Walburg, 96; Elizabeth Waters, 76; Elizabeth Wertheimer, 68; Natalie Harris Wheatley, 76; Mary Elizabeth Whitney, 61; Theodora Wiesner, 95; Martha Wilcox, 67; Robert Woodworth, 40; Hortense Lieberthal Zera, 143.

Subjects

• Bennington College.
• Choreography.
• Composers--Interviews.
• Dance music.
• Dancers--Interviews.
• Dance teachers--Interviews.
• Graham, Martha.
• Holm, Hanya, 1893-1992.
• Humphrey, Doris, 1895-1958.
• Interiews.
• Modern dance.
• Oral histories.
• United States--Intellectual life.
• Weidman, Charles.