David Vaughan (May 17, 1924 – October 27, 2017
[Roberts, Sam (November 1, 2017]
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'') was a dance archivist,
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
. He was the
archivist
An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...
of the
Merce Cunningham
Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...
Dance Company from 1976 until the company was disbanded in 2012.
In his long career, Vaughan was a dancer, choreographer, actor and singer whose work had been seen in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, and in New York, both
on-
and
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
,
[David Vaughan]
at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
The Internet Off-Broadway Database (IOBDB), also formerly known as the Lortel Archives, is an online database that catalogues theatre productions shown off-Broadway.
The IOBDB was funded and developed by the non-profit Lucille Lortel Foundation ...
as well as in
regional theatres across the United States, in
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
s, on television and on film.
["David Vaughan"]
on TCM.com
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
Vaughan's ballet choreography was used in
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
's 1955 film ''
Killer's Kiss
''Killer's Kiss'' is a 1955 American crime film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler. It is the second feature film directed by Kubrick, following his 1953 debut feature '' Fear and Desire''. The film stars ...
'', danced by Kubrick's wife at the time, ballerina
Ruth Sobotka
Ruth A. Sobotka (September 4, 1925 – June 17, 1967) was an Austrian-born American dancer, costume designer, art director, painter, and actress.
Life and career
The daughter and only child of Austrian architect and interior designer, Walter Sob ...
.
["Killer's Kiss: Full Credits"]
on TCM.com["Killer's Kiss: Full Credits"]
on AllRovi.com He has worked with both
modern dance and
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
companies.
["Administration/Staff: David Vaughan"]
on the Merce Cunningham Dance Company website
Life and career
Vaughan was born in London, to Albert, who was the secretary of the British Linoleum Manufacturers’ Association, and Ada Rose (née Starks). He studied at Oxford, but did not begin dance training until he was 23 years old.
At the age of 26, in 1950, Vaughan came to the New York City from London on a scholarship to study at the
School of American Ballet
The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...
, where he first met Merce Cunningham, who briefly taught there. Vaughan began studying with Cunningham in the mid-1950s, and became the company's paid secretary when Cunningham opened his own studio, after which he served in various staff capacities with Cunningham. He began to collect dance artifacts in the late 1950s,
leading to an interest in collecting documentation to make a chronology of Cunningham's works. This resulted in his being formally made the company's archivist in 1976,
[Sobsey, Adam (January 7, 201]
"Interview: Cunningham Archivist David Vaughan"
''The Thread'', Duke Performances, Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
assisted by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
.
[Burke, Siobhan (October 27, 2017]
"Beloved Dance Historian, Writer and Archivist David Vaughan Has Passed Away"
'' Dance Magazine'' He was the first in-house archivist for an American dance company.
He held this position until the disbanding of the Merce Cunningham Company in 2012, after Cunningham's death in 2009.
The Cunningham archive was then donated to the dance collection of the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
.
At Cunningham's suggestion, Vaughan coordinated the Cunningham Company's 1964 six-month world tour to Europe and Asia, with composer
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
serving as music director, and artist
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
as resident designer and
stage manager
Stage management is a broad field that is generally defined as the practice of organization and coordination of an event or theatrical production. Stage management may encompass a variety of activities including the overseeing of the rehearsal p ...
, a tour which greatly enhanced the company's reputation in the dance world.
In 1988, after
The Rockettes
The Rockettes are an American precision dance company. Founded 1925 in St. Louis, they have, since , performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Until 2015, they also had a touring company. They are best known for starring in the Rad ...
hired their first black dancer, Vaughan wrote an opinion piece for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' criticizing major ballet companies for falling behind other types of cultural organizations in giving artists of color regular opportunities to perform because of long-held ideas about the need for uniformity among dancers on stage. He observed that, "ballet technique has always accommodated itself to human bodies in all their variety".
Both Vaughan and Cunningham took part in the
Westbeth Oral History Project of the
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Village Preservation (formerly the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, or GVSHP) is a non-profit organization which advocates for the preservation of architecture and culture in several neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, New York. ...
, since the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's studio was located in the complex. They were interviewed in 2007.
Theatre
Vaughan was active in the theatre, both on- and off-Broadway. Between 1958 and 1972, he appeared in six productions off-Broadway, including ''
The Fantasticks
''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...
'' and ''
The Boy Friend'', and created choreography for three productions. He also arranged the music for a production of ''
The Cherry Orchard
''The Cherry Orchard'' (russian: Вишнёвый сад, translit=Vishnyovyi sad) is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by ''Znaniye'' (Book Two, 1904), and came out as a separate edition ...
''.
He made his Broadway debut in 1957 in a production of ''
The Country Wife
''The Country Wife'' is a Restoration comedy written by William Wycherley and first performed in 1675. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for ...
'', and subsequently appeared in four other productions, including a transfer of ''The Boy Friend'' from off-Broadway, his last Broadway appearance, in 1970.
Film
Vaughan's film credits include creating the ballet choreography danced by
Ruth Sobotka
Ruth A. Sobotka (September 4, 1925 – June 17, 1967) was an Austrian-born American dancer, costume designer, art director, painter, and actress.
Life and career
The daughter and only child of Austrian architect and interior designer, Walter Sob ...
in
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
's film ''
Killer's Kiss
''Killer's Kiss'' is a 1955 American crime film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler. It is the second feature film directed by Kubrick, following his 1953 debut feature '' Fear and Desire''. The film stars ...
'' (1955). Vaughan also appeared in the film in a bit part.
His film writing credits include the 1991 film ''Cage/Cunningham'', about the long-time collaborators John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and ''A Tudor Evening with American Ballet Theatre'', a presentation of the choreography of
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-1950 ...
.
Vaughan hosted monthly film screenings at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Dance
Vaughan narrated
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue.
Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositi ...
's 1937 ballet ''A Wedding Bouquest'', speaking the words of
Gertrude Stein. In 1968, he performed a duet with Nancy Zala for the James Waring Dance Company, which provoked critic
Clive Barnes to call Vaughan "possibly the finest bad singer in the country".
Vaughan also played the Pope, via photographs and audio recordings, in
David Gordon's 1979 piece ''An Audience With the Pope (Or This is Where I Came In)''. More recently, in 2016 he appeared in the Brooklyn Touring Outfit's ''Co. Venture'' in a "storytelling duet" with Pepper Fajans, the founding director of the Brooklyn Studios for Dance, about Vaughan's friendship with Cunningham.
The production travelled to the
Montreal Fringe Festival
The St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival is a festival that hosts fringe theatre, repertory, dance, music, and drag-queen performances in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The festival is held annually and lasts for 20 days in June. The festival was prev ...
.
Works
As an author, Vaughan wrote ''Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years'', – which
Jennifer Dunning
Jennifer Dunning (born February 4, 1942) is a writer and critic for ''The New York Times'' on the subjects of dance and ballet. She is the author of the 1985 ''But First a School: The First Fifty Years of the School of American Ballet'', the 1996 ...
called "as complete and clear a portrait of the modern dance choreographer and his epochal work as has ever been published"
– ''Frederick Ashton and His Ballets'', and was the co-editor with
Mary Clarke of ''The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet''. He also contributed the introduction to ''The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden''. At the time of his death, Vaughan was completing a book about the choreographer
James Waring
James Waring (November 1, 1922 - December 2, 1975) was a dancer, choreographer, costume designer, theatre director, playwright, poet, and visual artist, based in New York City from 1949 until his death in 1975. He was a prolific choreographer and ...
.
Vaughan was also a frequent contributor to ''
Ballet Review
''Ballet Review'' was a print publication which covered all aspects of dance. It was published by the non-profit Dance Research Foundation, Inc.
While its name says "ballet," it also covered modern dance, contemporary dance, other choreography, an ...
'', beginning with its first issue in 1965.
Awards and honors
In 2000 Vaughan received the
Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) Award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research, and in 2001 a
Bessie Award for sustained achievement.
He was also a recipient of a 2015 ''
Dance Magazine'' Award.
[Stahl, Jennifer (October 18, 2015]
"Announcing the 2015 Dance Magazine Awards"
'' Dance Magazine''
Personal life and death
Vaughan was the older brother of journalist and voiceover actor
Paul Vaughan
Paul William Vaughan (24 October 1925 – 14 November 2014) was a British journalist, radio presenter (of art and science programmes) throughout the 1970s and 1990s, semi-professional jazz and classical musician and a narrator of many BBC Telev ...
, who died in 2014. David Vaughan died from complications of
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
in his home in Manhattan, New York City in 2017.
See also
*
Modern dance
*
Dance criticism
Dance criticism in the United States is the act of producing a written or spoken review of a dance performance (often ballet, modern dance, or contemporary dance). It may also refer to the report itself, which may act as an archived review, criti ...
References
External links
*
*
David Vaughanat the
Internet Off-Broadway Database
The Internet Off-Broadway Database (IOBDB), also formerly known as the Lortel Archives, is an online database that catalogues theatre productions shown off-Broadway.
The IOBDB was funded and developed by the non-profit Lucille Lortel Foundation ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, David
1924 births
2017 deaths
American archivists
American dance critics
American male journalists
Bessie Award winners
Modern dance
School of American Ballet alumni
British expatriates in France
British emigrants to the United States