Our oral history project is designed for Irish dancers to do something that they never get a chance to do — to reflect on their practice, to consider how our shared cultural history has defined our form, and to unearth what connects us to the collective consciousness of all dancers.
“Because if you have a love for something, it’s like anything, yeah. It’s emotional to me, and it sends me to another world. Just like when you’re dancing, you feel you’re in another world. You’re in the air sort of, you know? You don’t see anything around. You’re just lost to the dance.” — Irish dancer, teacher & adjudicator VIVIENNE PENTONy BERGIN
Czechoslovakia, 1972. Image courtesy of James Yeates.
Listen to selected highlights below.
The full collection and transcripts will be available shortly via the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library.
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