David Vaughan (May 17, 1924 – October 27, 2017Roberts, Sam (November 1, 2017

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'') 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 species; as well as the ...

and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

. He was the

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 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 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, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

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 broadcas ...

Vaughan's ballet choreography was used in

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

's 1955 film ''

Killer's Kiss ''Killer's Kiss'' is a 1955 American Independent film, independently produced Crime film, 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 19 ...

'', danced by Kubrick's wife at the time, ballerina Ruth Sobotka."Killer's Kiss: Full Credits"
on TCM.com"Killer's Kiss: Full Credits"
on AllRovi.com He has worked with both

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th ...

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 associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional voc ...

, 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 university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

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 feder ...

.Burke, Siobhan (October 27, 2017
"Beloved Dance Historian, Writer and Archivist David Vaughan Has Passed Away"
''

Dance Magazine ''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' is currently part of Dance Media, led by longtime arts publisher Joanna Harp as president, and has mu ...

'' 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 The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

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 ...

. 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 Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

serving as music director, and artist

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" 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 Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...

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 overseeing of the rehearsal proce ...

, a tour which greatly enhanced the company's reputation in the dance world. In 1988, after

The Rockettes The Radio City Rockettes are an American precision dance company. Founded in 1925 in St. Louis, they have, since 1932, performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Until 2015, they also had a touring company. They are best known for sta ...

hired their first black dancer, Vaughan wrote an opinion piece for ''

'' 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 nonprofit organization that advocates for the architectural preservation and cultural preservation and opposes housing development in severa ...

, 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 ne ...

'' 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'' () 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 later that year in Saint Petersburg, via A.F. Marks Pu ...

''. 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 fo ...

'', 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 in

's film ''

'' (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-195 ...

. 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 oppositio ...

's 1937 ballet ''A Wedding Bouquet'', speaking the words of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

. In 1968, he performed a duet with Nancy Zala for the James Waring Dance Company, which provoked critic

Clive Barnes Clive Alexander Barnes (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for ''The New York Times'', and, from 1978 until his death, the ''New York Post''. Barnes had sign ...

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. Vaughan was also a frequent contributor to '' Ballet Review'', beginning with its first issue in 1965.

Awards and honors

In 2000 Vaughan received the

Congress on Research in Dance Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and worldwide that was founded in 1964 and then merged in 2017 with the Society of Dance History Scholars to form the Dance Studies Asso ...

(CORD) Award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research, and in 2001 a

Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...

for sustained achievement. He was also a recipient of a 2015 ''

'' Award.Stahl, Jennifer (October 18, 2015
"Announcing the 2015 Dance Magazine Awards"
''

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, 1980s and 1990s, and a narrator of many BBC Television science documentaries, among them ...

, who died in 2014. David Vaughan died from complications of

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

in his home in Manhattan, New York City in 2017.

References

External links

* *
David Vaughan
at the Internet Off-Broadway Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, David 1924 births 2017 deaths American archivists American dance critics American male journalists Bessie Award winners English expatriates in France English emigrants to the United States Modern dance School of American Ballet alumni