David Vaughan

David Vaughan (May 17, 1924 – October 27, 2017 ) was a dance archivist, historian and critic. He was the archivist of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1976 until the company was disbanded in 2012.

In his long career, Vaughan was a dancer, choreographer, actor and singer whose work had been seen in London, Paris, and in New York, both on- and off-Broadway, as well as in regional theatres across the United States, in cabarets, on television and on film. Vaughan's ballet choreography was used in Stanley Kubrick's 1955 film Killer's Kiss, danced by Kubrick's wife at the time, ballerina Ruth Sobotka. He has worked with both modern dance and ballet companies.

Life and career Vaughan was born in London, to Albert, who was the secretary of the British Linoleum Manufacturers’ Association, and Ada Rose (née Stocks). He studied at Oxford, but did not begin dance training until he was 23 years old. assisted by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the first in-house archivist for an American dance company.

Both Vaughan and Cunningham took part in the Westbeth Oral History Project of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, since the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's studio was located in the complex. They were interviewed in 2007.

Theatre Vaughan was active in the theatre, both on- and off-Broadway. Between 1958 and 1972, he appeared in six productions off-Broadway, including The Fantasticks and The Boy Friend, and created choreography for three productions. He also arranged the music for a production of The Cherry Orchard. More recently, in 2016 he appeared in the Brooklyn Touring Outfit's Co. Venture in a "storytelling duet" with Pepper Fajans, the founding director of the Brooklyn Studios for Dance, about Vaughan's friendship with Cunningham. – which Jennifer Dunning called "as complete and clear a portrait of the modern dance choreographer and his epochal work as has ever been published" and was the co-editor with Mary Clarke of The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet. He also contributed the introduction to The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. At the time of his death, Vaughan was completing a book about the choreographer James Waring.

Personal life and death Vaughan was the older brother of journalist and voiceover actor Paul Vaughan, who died in 2014. David Vaughan died from complications of prostate cancer in his home in Manhattan, New York City in 2017.