Interview with Muna Tseng, 2018
Muna Tseng (Interviewee), Lesley Farlow (Interviewer)
Streaming audio file 1, June 12, 2018 (approximately one hour and 38 minutes). Muna Tseng speaks with Lesley Farlow about her (extended) family and her childhood in Hong Kong including her education; emigrating to Vancouver, Canada in the 1960s; the impact of the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976] on life in Hong Kong; self-expression and happiness as Western values she was able to pursue due to her parents' move to Canada; their life in Vancouver; her discovery of modern dance; her teachers, Heather McCallum and Magda and Gertrude Hanova; her classes with Marcia Snyder at University of British Columbia; taking extra-curricular classes and workshops with various teachers including Albert Reid and Gladys Bailin; her first concert, at the Vancouver Art Gallery; Gerald Arpino's comments on her work and his offer of a scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet school; the influence on her of a Tai Chi master's comments on her choreography including her recent return to teaching Qigong; some of her collaborations with Janice LeBlond while at the University of British Columbia; after graduation, working as the director of the Vancouver Art Gallery; the impact of seeing Jean Erdman's Gauguin in Tahiti and attending Erdman's workshops, in Vancouver; moving to New York, in 1977 to pursue her dance training; her life in New York including an anecdote about how she reconnected with Erdman; performing at Erdman's and Joseph Campbell's Theater of the Open Eye, including in Erdman's work Twilight crane; joining Erdman's company and dancing in Erdman's work The shining house; performing in a revival of Erdman's work The transformations of Medusa; an anecdote about Erdman's reconstructing part of the work in a local diner; choreographing for the Holiday Dance Festivals at the Theater of the Open Eye
Audiobook, English, 2018