Rhoda Grauer papers

1965-2011 [bulk 1974-1994]

Rhoda Grauer is a pioneering producer of dance on television; and a director, writer, and manager for performing arts, documentary film, and radio. The primary focus of her work is world culture with an emphasis on traditional and contemporary dance. Grauer was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and studied theater at Vassar College, graduating in 1966.

She worked for the Festival of Two Worlds, from 1968 to 1974, becoming administrative director in July 1973. During this period, she also directed or worked as assistant director for a number of plays, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1974) at Vassar College, The Pelican at The Classic Theater at Stagelights (1973), and two original one act plays at La MaMa Theatre, New York (1972).

While at Spoleto, Grauer worked with Jerome Robbins, and through him became friends with Twyla Tharp in 1973, who introduced her to the mediums of film and video. She became the executive director of the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation in 1974. Her first production role was for Making Television Dance: A Videotape by Twyla Tharp, which featured Mikhail Baryshnikov and aired in 1977. This was the first of a number of productions Grauer worked on with Tharp and Baryshnikov.

Grauer was invited to direct dance programs for the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978, where she developed and administered the national funding program. She also produced NBC's Live from Studio 8H: An Evening with Jerome Robbins and Members of the New York City Ballet in 1980.

Grauer was asked to join American Ballet Theatre to establish a media department in 1981. During this period, she toured with the company, worked on organizing the benefit galas (1994, 1995), and also produced Twyla Tharp's television adaptation of The Catherine Wheel (1981), and Baryshnikov by Tharp with American Ballet Theatre (1984). In 1984, Grauer joined the Performance Programs division of WNET (channel 13), the New York PBS television station, where she worked on the series Great Performances and Dance in America. Some of the programs she produced were: David Gordon's Made in USA (1987); The Search for Nijinsky's Rite of Spring; and Gregory Hines: Tap Dance in America (1989).

While at WNET, Grauer developed the idea to create a documentary series on dance in world culture, focusing on why people dance. Research for the DANCING series began in the late 1980s and the eight hour series aired in May, 1993. It was filmed on five continents and includes the dance traditions of eighteen cultures. As part of outreach for the series, the program "America Dancing" was created as an audience development campaign which included a series of live events organized to tie in with broadcasts of the documentary.

Grauer subsequently worked as director of Media and Performing Arts at the Asia Society, New York, and as Dean at the School of the Visual and Performing Arts, Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus. She lives in Bali, Indonesia.