ALison Sutcliffe
VIEW TRANSCRIPT OF LETTER
It is quite possible that she is the first Canadian dancer to perform with the Met. While there, she frequently used the playbills as paper on which to write letters home. She often marked up the fronts of the playbills with notes about the performances and then wrote on the back to tell her mother about her day-to-day activities. When deposited, these letters had been stored rolled up for decades and were fragile and brittle – too delicate to unroll without the paper breaking further. With treatment from the Canadian Conservation Institute, the letters are now able to be viewed and read a century later. In this letter, Sutcliffe mentions some of the new performers on the scene in New York such as a young artist named Martha Graham. (Letter from Alison Sutcliffe Collection)
transcript
February 27, 1930
Dear Mother –
We, six of us, came in for rehearsal at 1:45 and then others at 2:15 and all of us at 2:45. We were sent down to dressing room at 3:30. Miss [Rosina] Galli is to come at four. It is four now but our bell has not rung. I guess when she wakes up the phone will ring and we will be able to go home.
I think I will practise Spanish [dance] after rehearsal and then go out for supper and then read a book by Troy Kinney and his wife on The Dance [The Dance: Its Place in Life and Art]. Then I go to the theatre to see Irene Lewisohn’s production at the Mecca Temple. Charles Weidman and Martha Graham are taking the leading parts.
4:15 We can go home. I am going down to punch out.
I received the shirts. They are lovely. I did not expect two. Are the bedroom slippers too large?
I am not writing Ruth Hague again. Will see her when she comes to New York.
Paul Haakon joined the Dance Club.
I saw the rooms at Dance Club in several stages. It was cold there last Sunday. Molly has reserved a room in which she hopes to move in three weeks time. Also they say we can practise there free of charge.
Miss Hanson ______ to Buffalo last week.
Have just come down the roof above 39th St. Roof stages where I was practising the castanets. Then I came down and watched baby class for a few minutes. It was not very interesting.
One of the shows I wanted to see next week closed. It ran only seven days. Helene Denizon and Everett Llelan, her partner, were dancing in it. They were Fokine pupils and I liked Helene Denizon’s work.
11:00 – I have seen the Irene Lewisohn productions. I like Martha Graham every time I see her. When Charles W. [Weidman] works with her ______ inferior. Met Mrs. Galli with puppy on 7th Ave. She has the foulest mind. Wanted to know if I was working up there. When I told her my name she seemed to know it. I asked how ___ Galli was and Mrs. Galli said nervous (on the “L”).
Love Alison