<Begin Segment 36>

MN: And the best one that I ever did was The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore. And that's a madrigal opera. And the singers are in the pit and everything was danced on stage. And it was a challenge, but I loved doing it. And I even asked Dr. Chapel if we could do that, and he said yes, but I don't think he knew what he said yes to. (...) So he (got) the record out, and that's what he followed, because he couldn't figure out what we were doing so he just played it like it was written. And we danced the whole thing, and it was a real success.

SY: When you say that was really satisfying for you, what was so wonderful about that piece?

MN: Well, it's 'cause I could use my imagination. (...) there was a poet, and the poet -- and he's an artist. And it was the same feeling, that the artists are frowned on, like the modern dance was not accepted. So here's this poet, and he -- and everybody, the townspeople, they think "Oh, he's crazy, 'cause he won't do this and he won't do that." All he does is reads poetry. And he has a unicorn, and they think it's terrible. And then finally they think it's, oh, the thing. So they all have to get unicorns. And then pretty soon he shows up with the (gorgon). And then everybody wants one of those. So it's the artist that's way ahead of his time. And then the general public accepts it and copies. And then at the end, he has the manticore. (...) So they all get manticores. And then they think, "This guy's goofy. We gotta do something about it." So they get their swords and (weapons). They're gonna storm the castle. And then they find that the poet is dying, and that the unicorn was his youth, and the gorgon was his middle age, and manticore was his old age. And he sings about how they're dear to him. (...) And then the townspeople (...) put down their swords and (weapons), and they kneel and they accept him. So it was, it was a great experience. And I got to use my (dancers), some of the singers and some of the children so it was (...) all my, it was my stage, the whole thing. The singers were in the pit. The orchestra was in the pit. [Laughs]

SY: And it was your story, too, in some ways?

MN: Well, I could feel it -- because this poet was suffering from being persecuted by the general public, so, because they didn't, they didn't understand him.

SY: Did you feel in some ways persecuted by the general public?

MN: No, I didn't. I just felt that it wasn't an accepted type of dancing like ballet was. There was a lot of folk-type dancing and ethnic dance going on in the city. Lots of ballet schools, but...

SY: So you didn't feel persecuted. How would you say you felt?

MN: No, no. I just felt that it wasn't understood very well. It takes quite a bit (...) for anybody to understand and learn about anything, for that matter. (Especially if it is new.)

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.