IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
Tracy Rhoades was a prize-winning dancer and choreographer whose most memorable piece, Requiem (1989), embodied the AIDS-related grief of the Bay Area dance community. Rhoades received his B.F.A. in dance from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, in 1986, after which he spent a year dancing in New York with Mark Dendy, Pooh Kaye, and the Joyce Trisler Dance Company. Subsequently he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he danced with the San Francisco Moving Company (later renamed the Della Davidson Dance Company) and The High Risk Group. He also choreographed his own work, forming a new company, Exploding Roses, in 1990. Rhoades was nominated for the Dance/Bay Area's Isadora Duncan Award in 1990 for performance and choreography for his piece Requiem. Rhoades created Requiem in 1989 as an elegy for his lover, Jim Poche, who had died of AIDS the previous year. The piece was performed numerous times in San Francisco (and in New York in 1990). Rhoades died of AIDS-related causes.
KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
Mary Rhoades, mother
506 Chestnut St.
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
Della Davidson, colleague
Associate Professor
Department of Theater and Dance
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
530-754-8969
dmdavidson@ucdavis.edu
HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
(name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
None identified.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
The San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum (SFPALM) holds video documentation of the following works on VHS: Magnificat, Requiem, and one video titled as, "Tracy Rhoades and dancers in performance at The Lab," February 21, 1991.
PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
Two press photos are located in a file at SFPALM: from Requiem (photo credit, Gerry Traucht [also known as G. Raven Traucht]) and from Seventh Veil (photo credit: Jeanne Whalen-Harrison of dancer Peter Overton as Salome). Traucht has a large number of photographs of Rhoades and can be contacted at tranceorpheus@hotmail.com.
MOVEMENT NOTATION
(location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
None identified.
PRODUCTION MATERIALS
(scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
None identified.
ORAL HISTORY:
None identified.
PERSONAL PAPERS
(location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
SFPALM holds one file for Tracy Rhoades containing newspaper clippings and printed programs. Rhoades's mother holds clippings and photographs.
IMMEDIATE NEEDS
(archival assistance? storage? other?):
None identified.
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
None.
PARTIAL LIST OF WORKS
(title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):
Requiem (1990)—choreography and performance by Rhoades, music from Faure's Requiem, premier location unknown
Magnificat (1991)—music: J.S. Bach's Magnificat in D Major; formally premiered at The Lab in San Francisco (20 February)
The Seventh Veil (1992)—original Music by David Stout; scenery by Dana Zed; costumes by Billy De Herrera; performers: Megan MacArthur, Peter Overton, Sten Rudstrom, Peter Foster, Debbie Taylor, Nina Galin, Tia Hunnicutt, Cassie Terman, Howard Tom, Meg Shepardson; San Francisco
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- Dunning, Jennifer. 1990. "Charlip and Friends." New York Times (21 July).
- Gere, David. Forthcoming. How to Make Dances in an Epidemic: Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
- __________. 2002. "T-shirts and Holograms: Corporeal Fetishes in AIDS Choreography, c. 1989." Theatre Journal (54), John Hopkins University Press, pp. 45-62.
- Goldstein, Richard. 1994. "Dancer from the Dance." Village Voice (4 January): 25.
- Green, Judith. 1993. "Tracy A. Rhoades, 31, Dancer, Choreographer" [obituary]. San Jose Mercury News (22 January).
- Parish, Paul. 1990. "San Francisco" [review of Tracy Rhoades's Requiem]. Ballet Review (Fall): 7-10.
- San Francisco Bay Guardian. 1990. "Tracy Rhoades." San Francisco Bay Guardian (9 May).
- Tucker, Marilyn. 1992. "Tracy Rhoades Unveils an Up-to-Date Salome." San Francisco Chronicle (25 July).
- __________. 1991. "Dance Series' 'Magnificat.'" San Francisco Chronicle (4 February): F4.
