The Estate Project

NAME: Self, Jim

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
6 March 1954, Greenville, Alabama

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Jim Self (standing) and dancers in Self's Sanctuary: Ramona and the Wolf Gang Work for a Cure (1993), performed at Cornell University. Photo: Patricia Reynolds.

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IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
A former member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Jim Self is an experimental downtown New York choreographer (now living in Ithaca, New York, and teaching at Cornell) whose Sanctuary: Ramona and the Wolfgang Work for a Cure (1993) deals at least tangentially with AIDS. Jennifer Dunning writes in her New York Times review (see below) that, in the culminating section of the piece, "a nude male performer received a mostly genital massage." Identifying the performers of the work as disciples of Joseph Kramer's Body Electric school of erotic massage, Dunning then continues: "Mr. Kramer's work would seem to deal in part with the demands of safe sex in the AIDS era."

In an email (30 October 2000) Self explains: "There are many reasons and circumstances leading up to the creation of Sanctuary. A few include: my personal HIV status; my desire to use ritual performance as a way to loosen the response around AIDS; a research project related to studies of ritual as a healing tool; to create a forum for various perspectives to interact. The project was very ambitious and had additional incarnations at Cornell and other venues, but the event in NYC was the only one to specifically use erotic massage as content."

KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
Jim Self
Senior Lecturer in Dance
Department of Theatre, Film & Dance
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-254-2743
607-254 2733 (fax)
jts16@cornell.edu

HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
(name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
Jim Self

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
Self holds "low-tech" documentation in VHS, 16 mm, Super VHS, and DV formats.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
c/o Jim Self

MOVEMENT NOTATION
(location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
Self keeps notes that he prepared while creating the piece.

PRODUCTION MATERIALS
(scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
These materials are in the possession of Jim Self.

ORAL HISTORY:
None identified.

PERSONAL PAPERS
(location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
These materials are in the possession of Jim Self.

IMMEDIATE NEEDS
(archival assistance? storage? other?):
Extensive archival organization needed primarily for transfer from analog to DV formats and cataloging of notes, papers, etc.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
None identified.

LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
(title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):
Among the works in his repertory, Self's Sanctuary is most closely associated with AIDS. He made the piece in collaboration with Michael Biello and Dan Martin:

Sanctuary: Ramona and the Wolfgang Work for a Cure (1993)—performed at Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church, New York City; music by Arvo Pärt (Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten) and by Dan Martin and Michael Biello; lighting by Carol Mullins; sets by Jim Self, Michael Biello, and Patrick Kelly; performed by Self, Rose-Anne Spradlin, Jimmy Chu, Keith Grant, and others.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Dunning, Jennifer. 1993. "Dance in Review: Jim Self, St. Mark's Church." New York Times (11 January).
Jowitt, Deborah. 1993. "All That Jazz" [review of Jim Self's Sanctuary: Ramona and the Wolfgang Work for a Cure]. Village Voice (2 February).
Thom, Rose Anne. 1993. "Jim Self, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, January 7-10." Dance Magazine (April).

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