NAME: Yearby, Marlies

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
c. 1960

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Photo: © Dona McAdams, courtesy Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

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  • identification & bio
  • key contact
  • human repositories
  • video documentation
  • photographic documentation
    		•
  • movement notation
  • production materials
  • oral history
  • personal papers
  • immediate needs
    		•
  • other relevant information
  • overview of works
  • bibliography
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    IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
    A modern/postmodern choreographer, Marlies Yearby is best known for her Tony-nominated choreographic contributions to Jonathan Larson's Broadway hit Rent (1996), a reinterpretation of Puccini's La Boheme made relevant for the AIDS era. As a teenager in the late 1970s in Oakland, California, Yearby was a professional disco dancer. In the 1980s, she trained in modern dance at San Jose State University, supplemented by classes in Limon technique with Aaron Osborne at New Performance Gallery in San Francisco. In addition to her work for musical theater, she is founder and co-artistic director of Movin' Spirits Dance Theater.

    KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
    Marlies Yearby

    HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
    (name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
    Marlies Yearby and members of the cast of Rent.

    VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    None identified at the Dance Collection or Theater Collection of the New York Public Library, nor from commercial sources.

    PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Available from the publicists of Rent.

    MOVEMENT NOTATION
    (location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
    None identified.

    PRODUCTION MATERIALS
    (scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
    In the possession of the producers of Rent.

    ORAL HISTORY:
    None identified.

    PERSONAL PAPERS
    (location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
    The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library maintains a clippings file for "Yearby, Marlies," call number MGZR.

    IMMEDIATE NEEDS
    (archival assistance? storage? other?):
    None identified.

    OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
    None identified.

    PARTIAL LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
    (title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):
    Rent (1986)—Broadway musical choreographed by Marlies Yearby; book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson; directed by Michael Greif.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

    • Gere, David. 1997. "Steps for Rent." Buzz Weekly [Los Angeles] (12 December).
    • Gladstone, Valerie. 1997. "Musical Comedies: Postmodern Dance's Season on Broadway." Dance Magazine (December 1997): 58-61.
    • Ostlere, Hilary. 1996. "Bring in the Musicals." Dance Magazine (August): 50, ill.
         		 
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