Browse Exhibits (1 total)

Legacy oral histories record and preserve the artistic legacies of San Francisco Bay Area performing arts community members who are at-risk. They are full-life histories with an emphasis on the narrator's personal experience as it relates to the performing arts. 

Thanks to a generous grant from the California State Library through the Library Services & Technology Act, the Museum of Performance + Design digitized many of its Legacy audio recordings. Legacy's senior editors chose representatives from dance, music, and theater, gay and lesbian artists, high culture artists, artists representing community-based organizations and more cutting edge art forms to be featured in the online collection. The selection of narrators is gender considerate and ethnically diverse. The Collection features men and women of African, Haitian, Cambodian, Jewish, Spanish, Russian and other heritages.

Below are the narrators featured in the Legacy Online Collection:

Eddie Alley : Jazz drummer; integrated Musicians Union Local 6

Bira Almeida : Dance; master teacher and musician in Afro-Brazilian Capoeira form; capoeira school administrator, educator, and writer

Ruth Beckford : African American modern dancer and Afro-Haitian dance performer, choreographer and educator; playwright and writer

Yurii Cachero : Afro-Haitian and Native American dancer; community movement educator

Remy Charlip : Modern dancer, Merce Cunningham Dance Company/Judson Dance Theatre; choreographer and dancer; dance educator; somatics educator; visual artist and writer

Circle the Earth : Workshop led by Anna Halprin in Subud, Bali (1990); Essen, Germany (1991); and Frieburg, Germany (1991).

Chitresh Das : Classical South Indian Kathak dancer, choreographer, and teacher; Artistic Director, Chitresh Das Dance Company; experimental collaborator

Frank Everett : Modern, jazz and ballet dancer with Oakland Ballet and ODC/SF, among others; modern dance choreographer

Vivan Fine : Musician; experimental composer including original works for early modern dance pioneers  

Eve Gentry : Modern dance pioneer; performer with Hanya Holm company; choreographer, performer and dance educator; co-founder Dance Notation Bureau; dance rehabilitation expert

Henry Glass : Russian-American folk dance artist; world folk dance researcher, reconstructor, educator and founder/administrator of California Folk Dance Federation; early childhood movement educator; recording artist on LP; writer

 Dean Goodman : Actor for stage, film and radio; theater director, educator, producer, writer, critic and labor activist

Jefe Guimares : Afro-Brazilian dance performer; Latin American folk and ritual dance

Ruth Hatfield : Modern dancer choreographer, performer and teacher; children’s  dance; somatics educator ; dance advocate and activist Circle The Earth, Dancing With Life On The Line, 1991: Oral History of a Movement Ritual

Thomas Heimberg: Violist; classical music performer with San Francisco Symphony and Opera/Ballet Orchestra; orchestra manager; writer and labor advocate

Pauline Henderson: Dance education in England; modern dance performer, choreographer and educator 

Stanley Kahn: Tap dance master performer, choreographer, educator, innovative notator; dance director for Ice Follies; vaudeville

Thelma Langston: Vaudeville performer

Richard E. LeBlond Jr. : Performing arts sociologist; classical ballet dance administrator and past-president San Francisco Ballet; dance advocate and writer

Grace Mann: Classical ballet dancer; Ballets Russe performer; early American regional ballet choreographer and educator 

Jamie McHugh: Experimental choreographer and performer; children’s dance educator; somatics educator and writer

Jamie Miller:  European-American Middle-Eastern dance performer and educator; modern dancer trained by Bella Lewitzky and Lester Horton; choreographer

Naomi Newman:  Theater director and actor, A Traveling Jewish Theater; actor for  television; instrumental and vocal musician; theater educator, administrator, writer

Barbara Oliver:  Theater director, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley; Berkeley Rep actor, theater educator, theater company administrator, writer

Aaron Osborne:  Modern dance performer with Jose Limon and Lar Lubavitch dance companies; international dance educator

Nemesio Paredes:  Filipino-American Flamenco dancer

William Paterson:  Theater actor with Cleveland Playhouse and American Conservatory Theater; adaptor of plays and published writer

Lanny Pinola: Pomo tribe Native American dancer and educator; reconstructor of traditional dance rituals

Maclovia Ruiz:  Mexican-born Spanish classical dancer with Antonio’s troupe, interpretive dancer trained at Peters Wright School in San Francisco; classical ballet on-stage with Balanchine and Metropolitan/San Francisco Opera Ballet, film and urban ballroom dancer

Dennis Rumsey: Dance administrator; San Francisco Ballet, Sacramento Ballet.

Tomm Ruud: Classical ballet performer and choreographer, SF Ballet and Ballet West 

Frank Shawl:  Modern dancer, choreographer and teacher; performer with May O’Donnell Company and on television 

Jean Shelton: Theater actor, director and educator; theater school administrator and writer

Gloria Unti:  Dance/theater choreographer and performer; dance educator and community activist; founder of Performing Arts Workshop in San Francisco

Inga Weiss: Wigman student/German Expressionist choreographer, dancer and educator; founder, Department of Dance, Stanford

Keith White: Dance writer and critic; American ballet and modern dance

David Wood: Modern dance performer with Martha Graham Dance Company; choreographer, educator and chair, UC-Berkeley Dance Dept.