DANCE PRESERVATION ARCHIVES:

RELATIONSHIPS, ACCESS, AND

TECHNOLOGY

BY KATHRYN A. DUSELL

December 2016
DANCE PRESERVATION ARCHIVES: RELATIONSHIPS, ACCESS, AND
TECHNOLOGY

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty

of

Drexel University

by

Kathryn A. Dusell

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree

of

Master of Science in Arts Administration

December 2016
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© Copyright 2016
Kathryn A. Dusell. All Rights Reserved.
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DEDICATIONS

To my husband, Cecil, who has supported me throughout this process.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Jean Brody of the Antoinette

Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University. She provided expert

advice and encouragement throughout this paper. I could not imagine a better advisor for

my thesis. Besides my advisor, I would also like to thank Dr. Andrew Zitcer for his

insightful comments and hard questions during the planning stages of this thesis in the

Arts Administration Seminar.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents and to my

friend, Caitlin, for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement

throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this

thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. My heartfelt

thanks.

.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... V

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. VI

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER ONE – DANCE PRESERVATION ARCHIVES AND CURATORS ................................ 12

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (NYPL) FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS...... 12

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ............................................................................ 14
JEROME LAWRENCE AND ROBERT E. LEE THEATRE RESEARCH
INSTITUTE (TRI) AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (OSU)................................. 17
JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE ................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER TWO – CREATOR/ARCHIVIST RELATIONSHIPS ....................................................... 22

CHAPTER THREE – CHALLENGES OF EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY .......................................... 31

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 39

SOURCES CITED ....................................................................................................................................... 46

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1 – SCREEN SHOT OF THE MERCE CUNNINGHAM ARCHIVE IN THE JEROME ROBBINS
DANCE DIVISION DIGITAL COLLECTION. 14
FIGURE 2 – SCREEN SHOT OF DIGITAL OBJECT ENTRY FOR AN ORIGINAL RUSSIAN BALLET
NOTEBOOK IN THE PERFORMING ARTS ENCYCLOPEDIA. 16
FIGURE 3 – SCREEN SHOT OF A FINDING AID FOR THE BEBE MILLER COLLECTION IN THE
OHIOLINK LIBRARY CATALOG. 18
FIGURE 4 – SCREEN SHOT OF THE “FEATURED GALLERIES” ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE
ONLINE JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE ARCHIVE. 21
FIGURE 5 – DIGITAL IMAGE TAKEN BY RACHAEL RIGGS LEYVA OF A SCRAPBOOK PAGE IN
BETTER HOUSING IN THE THOMPSON LIBRARY AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. 32
FIGURE 6 – DIGITAL IMAGE TAKEN BY RACHAEL RIGGS LEYVA OF THE DALCROZE
COLLECTIONS IN THE THOMPSON LIBRARY AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. 33
FIGURE 7 – DIGITAL IMAGE TAKEN BY RACHAEL RIGGS LEYVA OF PILES OF AUDIO REELS IN
THE THOMPSON LIBRARY AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. 34
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ABSTRACT

Organizations that archive dance documentation assert that the use of archival

materials can benefit many aspects of the creative process as well as the education of

future dancers and choreographers. This thesis explores the relationship between

choreographers and archivists and how current technology has affected access.

This research looks at four different types of organizations to examine the state of

dance preservation. I gathered data through phone interviews and reviewed online archive

databases of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Library of

Congress, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State

University, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance. For archivists, keeping up with changing

technology will be an ongoing challenge. Archivists will need to start working with

choreographers and dance companies earlier in their careers to preserve digital materials

before they disappear.

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INTRODUCTION

Dance disappears in the moment of becoming.

– Linda Murray

Many dance organizations do not plan for the preservation of performance video

and associated materials for the future. Organizations that archive dance documentation,

however, assert that preserving dance for future generations is essential for legacy

building, dance history, and academic legitimacy. The use of archival materials can

benefit many aspects of the creative process as well as the education of future dancers

and choreographers.

I have some personal experience with documenting dance, but was not aware of

the protocol for long-term preservation of this material. As a teacher and choreographer

for a color guard program, I record videos of choreography with the purpose of sharing

them with the students I work with. Color guard involves using equipment, most

commonly a flag, with dance in competitive performances. Students are able to watch the

videos outside of practice to review what they have learned. I also find it useful in case I

have forgotten a part of what I have choreographed. After all of the performances and the

competition season are over, the competition videos I have recorded and the photographs

I have taken are compiled and burned onto a DVD for each of the performance members

to keep.

In my experience, dance documentation is a casual act with the purpose of

creating material as a keepsake for the students to possess to remind them of the past
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competition season. Everything I use is kept digitally in folders on my computer after the

season is over; however, I have only been casually documenting dance for the past five

years. There are previous seasons that I wish I had a record of, but, at the time, recording

was overshadowed by the demands of managing a live performance.

Reflecting on this loss catalyzed my interest in learning about the preservation of

dance materials. More specifically, what is the relationship between choreographers and

archivists? And how has current technology affected access?

Within the past decade, there has been an important push from dance archivists to

preserve the legacies of choreographers and dance companies. There are many obstacles

facing those who realize the benefits of preserving dance including intellectual property

rights, rapidly developing technology, and access to archival materials. Despite these

obstacles, the dance community needs access to archival materials to choreograph new

dances, re-stage dances, teach dance history, and expand the body of literature (Johnson

and Fuller 1999, 16).

The very nature of dance as an art form makes it a challenge to capture through

traditional documentation because of its transient nature throughout its lifetime. Dance is

transmitted by speech and body memory through a human chain from choreographer to

dancer (Beyond Memory 1994, 1). Performances happen to be multidimensional and very

complex to capture on a two-dimensional format, such as photographs or video, without

loss of depth or quality of the dance. George Balanchine, who was afraid that his works

would lose their integrity without his guiding hand, stated, “I don’t want my ballets

preserved as museum pieces for people to go and laugh at what used to be. Absolutely

not. I’m staging ballets for today’s bodies. Ballet is now” (Yeoh 2012, 224). This
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perspective has hindered the documentation and subsequent preservation of dance by

choreographers who think that subsequent restaging would degrade the qualities that

make their choreography theirs.

Dance fills a unique cultural niche in society. Under the United Nations

Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), dance is considered

intangible cultural heritage and should be safeguarded for future generations. According

to UNESCOS’s “Frequently Asked Questions” webpage, “this is intangible cultural

heritage, a living form of heritage which is continuously recreated and which evolves as

we adapt our practices and traditions in response to our environment.” UNESCO does

acknowledge that dance should remain relevant and continuously evolving rather than

fixed or frozen without any sort of evolution in technique.

UNESCO encourages the dance community to collect documentation for

preservation because the community is best suited for making decisions about what is

considered valuable (“Frequently Asked Questions” n.d.). There is a huge body of

literature from the outside, i.e. researchers and scholars, looking in, but very little from

the inside, i.e. choreographers and dancers, looking out (Saaze and Dekker 2013, 106). At

a Chicago forum on dance, documentation, and research, dancers expressed frustration

with unclear texts written by dance theorists, supporting the evidence that not many from

within the dance community write literature (Moore 2002, 127). UNESCO does suggest a

middle ground where outsiders are able to help with collecting and recording information

since the community may not be proficient enough in these areas. However, the dance

community is the experts on what’s happening within their sphere.

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Documentation and preservation of dance has a greater cultural importance than

just transmission. New dances are able to transmit values and create dialogues that reflect

society’s present issues while classical dance is a product of the evolution of technique

and understanding. “Dance is one of the potent factors in the improvement, promotion, or

strengthening of tradition” (Cariaga 2014, 72). If the changes are not captured within any

record, future dancers will not be able to appreciate how and when technique and styles

have evolved.

Dance historians agree that the act of preserving moments in dance is important;

its significance is rivaled by the importance of access to archival materials. Increasingly

reliable access will affect public support and funding for all forms of dance as people

become more familiar with the art form and its language (Smigel et al. 2006, 7). For

historians, the ability to observe dance history visually and in rapid succession can be

used in comparative analysis that is often overlooked in text based materials (Moore

2002, 126). The impact from visualizing the material can be much greater in an

educational setting.

The archival materials can also be used as a “boundary object” that “serves as an

interface, a stimulus of communication between different communities, disciplines, users

and professionals” (Saaze and Dekker 2013, 102). This can serve to establish a shared

vocabulary, create insight into the artistic and working processes, and help reflect on

methodologies. Dance directors, choreographers, and teachers can use this type of

documentation for guidance to reconstruct or update dance based on the environment or

production (Cariaga 2014, 81). It also creates a discussion between the choreographer and

the dancers for motivations behind the dance to be better understood.

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The use of archival materials also carries an educational component for dance

students, helping them to contextualize a piece on a conceptual level (Saaze and Dekker

2013, 108). More generally, archives ensure the transfer of knowledge, skills, and

meaning from one point of past authority to the dancers currently learning choreography,

history, or theory (“Frequently Asked Questions” n.d.).

One of the challenges facing dance preservation is a lack of academic legitimacy

because it is a relatively young field as an area of academic study in the United States.

According to Nancy Moore, dance scholarship has grown over the last 20 years, but

books on dance are few. This creates the impression that dance does not have a history,

which in turn creates a stigma in a culture where the past legitimizes the present (Johnson

and Fuller 1999, 1). The fact is that dance overlaps with many other library and archive

categories such as music, anthropology, and the arts resulting in “hidden documentation”

of dance under other categories (Johnson and Fuller 1999, 3). At the “Chicago Forum on

Performance Ephemeral Evidence: A Conversation on Dance, Documentation and

Research,” Nancy Moore noticed that there is no one single, definitive volume of dance

history or theory that everyone is familiar with and has read. There is “no easy way, via

quotation or footnote, of keeping the dance in view amidst the mass of references to

critical theory that a scholar must make in order to establish his or her authority” (Moore

2002, 127). Another point of resistance to documentation is a lack of shared vocabulary

and methodology across dance forms. These deficits would seem to invalidate dance as a

subject for scholarly inquiry (Moore 2002, 125).

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DANCE DOCUMENTATION

Dance documentation actually has a long history that is now creating a large push

for more and better preservation. “Visual and written documentation provides fragmented

glimpses of the presence and significance of dance throughout the history of humankind”

(Johnson and Fuller 1999, 5). In earlier centuries, Western dance documents consisted of

drawings or painted illustrations with text. Later in the Renaissance period, many dance

masters began recording their dance steps to create ownership of their style and methods

(Johnson and Fuller 1999, 6). This evolved in the Baroque period to also include floor

plans. None of these notation writings were standardized in any way and varied from

choreographer to choreographer.

Documentation would not change again until the mid-1800s when photography

was invented. Even with the advancements of photography since its development, still

images failed to capture the quality of dance movement (Moore 2002, 126). It was not

until film was invented in the early 1900s that dance could be captured quickly and

completely. The 1940s brought smaller, lighter, and easier to use cameras that changed

dance documentation through video, becoming a critical body of literature (Johnson and

Fuller 1999, 7).

The 1940s also heralded the first form of dance notation: Labanotation. This

writing system contains different symbols for how the body is placed in each position

during a dance. The Dance Notation Bureau was established in the United States to

function as a custodian of archiving this type of notation. Later in 1955, Benesh

Movement Notation was also created in the United Kingdom separately from

Labanotation using a different set of symbols. These systems were highly planned and
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accurate in capturing the steps, shape, and/or pattern of movement that could be used for

reconstruction (Smigel et al. 2006, 8-9).

In 1967, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) included dance as a

subcategory of fine and performing arts, making it an area of support for funding

(Johnson and Fuller 1999, 5). A decade later in 1976, United States copyright laws

included choreography as a separate entity partly due to the standardization of notation

methods (Johnson and Fuller 1999, 7). This was a significant step in legitimizing dance

and changing academic and legal views in the United States. A large shift in focus from

material to immaterial culture also occurred around this time, which may have

contributed to the changing views (Brown 2005, 41).

The advent of videotapes in the late 1970s to early 1980s expanded the use of

dance documentation because you can fast forward and rewind the tape as well as

freezing selected frames (Johnson and Fuller 1999, 8). This capability was not something

earlier film formats could accomplish.

The growth of electronic media in the 1990s and the scramble to document

choreography in a community greatly affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic brought ever-

greater options for dance documentation (Johnson and Fuller 1999, 11). The LabanWriter

software created at Ohio State University allowed for faster capture of notation; the use

of digital video cut down on associated costs; and three-dimensional animation and

motion capture were developed (Smigel et al. 2006, 8, 11, 15). This progression in

technology has affected the documentation process in ways the field as a whole is still

adapting to.
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Technology has played a significant role in the history of dance documentation.

The most beneficial aspect of technology is the ability to have “instantaneous access to

information without real location constraints, data transport at the speed of light, and

effortless reproduction of the original without any loss of quality” (Burri 2010, 33).

Organizations from all over the world are able to collaborate without location or time

constraints. The Digital Age “allows for the expression of each and every type of

content…in a line of zeroes and ones and thereby creates a universal code for all

information (Burri 2010, 34). The standardization of information makes it much easier to

share and store information in a central place.

There are downsides to relying on technology, particularly on rapidly changing

formats. It is important to keep current with the preferred formats for sustainability and

interoperability (Burri 2010, 47). However, most of these digital formats are a question

mark when it comes to long-term stability (Johnson and Fuller 1999, 31). As technology

changes, formats must be updated and many old films and videotapes need to be

converted before they are lost. This is an ongoing challenge that affects archives

maintaining digital formats.

Another consideration is the intellectual property (IP) rights of information. The

ability to make perfect copies can be dangerous if dance documentation is not properly

protected through copyrights (Brown 2005, 44). When creating documentation or

archiving materials, it is essential to review contracts and release forms to ensure that the

creator or group will retain their rights (Kim 2012, 228).

Finding a suitable archive to preserve dance documentation on a long-term basis

is an important component of the preservation process. Archivists will also be able to

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consult on which materials are significant enough to keep (Beyond Memory 1994, 4).

There are a variety of materials created while documenting dance that archivists will

know how to maintain in the environment needed for preservation. Damage from a

poorly maintained environment can be expensive and impossible to restore (Johnson and

Fuller 1999, 32).

There is a history of tension between the dance community, archivists, curators,

and librarians. The dance community feels that it should have complete and open access

because they feel a sense of ownership (Johnson and Fuller 1999, 16). Libraries,

however, may lack the materials or the permission for access to meet demands. It is

especially important for the creator of documentation and the archivist to work together

to address the minimum standards of preservation while addressing the essential needs of

the dance organization (Burtis 2009). The archivist should advocate for open access

while ensuring the documentation is not in violation of legal or ethical regulations that

might prevent distribution (Kim 2012, 232). This may include copyrights on the music

used in dances, further complicating the process. A delicate balance needs to be

maintained by archivists between protecting artist copyrights and allowing access to

dance materials.

METHODOLOGY AND LIMITATIONS

This research looks at four different types of dance preservation organizations: a

public library, a government facility, an educational institute, and a dance festival. These

four organizations respectively are the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,

the Library of Congress, the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research

Institute (TRI) at the Ohio State University, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance.
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I found all four organizations through the Dance Heritage Coalition, which is an

alliance founded in 1992 of major institutions that house dance collections (Johnson and

Fuller 1999, 13). The Dance Heritage Coalition mission statement as defined on their

website (www.danceheritage.org) is “to make accessible, enhance, augment, and preserve

the materials that document the artistic accomplishments of dance of the past, present,

and future.”

Head curators from each organization were selected for phone interviews that

lasted approximately 30-60 minutes and were digitally recorded. At the conclusion of the

interview, I inquired if there was anyone else that I should contact. A couple of

organizations gave me additional recommendations. During the interviews, I asked the

following:

• Who are your target audiences and how do they use the archives?

• What difficulties do you face preserving and updating older materials?

• What dance groups do you work with and in what capacity?

• Are there general considerations or guidelines about legality and IP rights?

In addition to conducting these interviews, I reviewed each organization’s online

archive database to get a sense of what materials they collect and how they catalog and

organize archival materials. In the case of Library of Congress, I was able to visit the

Performing Arts Reading Room in person.

The combination of interviews, online archive databases, and a review of the

literature provided a comprehensive examination of how choreographers and dancers

interact with archives today. Technology is changing that relationship in such a way that

it was central to discussion of archival materials.

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There were several limitations of this study due to time restrictions. The largest is

that I was unable to interview Libby Smigel, the dance archivist in the Music Division for

Library of Congress. I did, however, visit the Library of Congress Performing Arts

Reading Room in place of the interview and corresponded with her through e-mail.

Another limitation was that I was unable to visit all the archive sites in person.

Though I would have liked to browse through the collections in person, I limited myself

to reviewing the online archive databases instead.

The final limitation is that the scope of this study focused exclusively on the

curators and archivists of these organizations. I did not ask any choreographers or dancers

that work with the organizations for their perspective or opinions. This perspective could

be an excellent area for further research in dance preservation.

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CHAPTER ONE – DANCE PRESERVATION ARCHIVES AND CURATORS

Before delving into the themes and concepts discovered through the interviews, I

would like to briefly introduce each organization and the participants. Because each

organization is different, establishing their unique perspective will assist with analyzing

the information gathered from speaking with their respective curators and archivists.

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (NYPL) FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division, which is one of four divisions at the New

York Public Library for the Performing Arts, is the largest and most comprehensive

dance archive in the world. Dance collections were first acquisitioned in 1944 by the

music division. Starting in 1947, the dance archives were overseen by Genevieve

Oswald, who began as part of the music division, but eventually devoted all of her time to

the dance archive after 1950 (Brooks 2011, 448).

Oswald laid the groundwork and processes for how the world should go about

building dance archives. She created roadmaps for describing and cataloging dance as

well as what materials should fall within the scope of archives. She also made an effort to

include as many different kinds of people from as many different places in the world as

she could. Oswald began collecting American modern dance and ballet archival

materials. She then expanded the dance archives to include the Asian Collection. The

collection now includes modern, ballet, ethnic, social, and folk dances. The Jerome

Robbins Dance Division is now a cornerstone in the dance archival world thanks to their

first dance curator.

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Having previously worked at the Library of Congress, the current curator, Linda

Murray, is only the 5th dance curator for the New York Public Library. Oswald retired in

1987 after 40 years of work on the dance archives (Brooks 2011, 448). Murray now

oversees all aspects of the dance collections and interactions with the public. She affirms

that she is inspired every day by Genevieve Oswald and the protocols she put in place.

She says that if Oswald had not done it, “I don’t know where we would be on the

international field with dance preservation.”

One of the programs that Oswald started in the 1960s that the Jerome Dance

Division continues today is partnering with choreographers and dance companies to

document their work through photo-shoots and video. The dance group receives a copy of

the documentation and another copy goes into the archives. Another such program is the

audio history project started in the 1970s to capture the life stories of choreographers and

dancers.

Other archival material varies in type and format because the Jerome Dance

Division is a subject-based archive. These include books, manuscripts, correspondence,

journals, photographs, costume and set sketches, moving image, and audio. The archive

does take some 3-dimensional objects like models of sets, but they no longer take

costumes. One unique type of documentation they include is negatives of photographs.

Most archives will only take prints.

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division Digital Collection includes audio, video, and

images from their dance archives. However, a comprehensive collection of their onsite

materials is not available. Many entries only contain the location of the materials onsite

and a bibliographic citation.

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Figure 1 – Screen shot of the Merce Cunningham archive in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Digital Collection.

A number of different people use the NYPL dance materials. One of the largest

populations is dance researchers, which includes anyone who is researching or writing

about dance. Documentarians also use the moving image collections for their use in

films. Most importantly, dancers and choreographers from around New York City use

these materials to research roles, get inspiration for new works, or restage old works. The

location of the library at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts brings in a lot of

nearby students from The Juilliard School, American Ballet Theatre, and New York City

Ballet.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The Library of Congress, located in Washington, D.C., is the United States’ first

cultural institution and the largest library in the world. The Library was founded in 1800

inside the Capitol building. The first separate building, the Thomas Jefferson building,

was opened in 1897 followed by the John Adams Building in 1938 and the James
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Madison Memorial Building in 1981. The Music Division, which holds the dance

collections, is in this last building.

The Performing Arts Reading Room is the access point for the Music Division for

almost 500 special collections. The Music Division was formally created in 1896.

Archival materials of dance documentation was limited at first and focused on dance as a

cultural aspect. “Due to its ephemeral nature, theatrical dance in America has been poorly

documented, and until recently the art was not treated seriously as a potential area of

scholarly inquiry. This state of affairs has left libraries and archives with documents that

have been preserved by virtue of their relationship to another field, such as music,

theater, or cultural history” (Music, Theater, Dance, 1993). The Performing Arts Reading

Room will be undergoing renovations in the next year to expand their storage space. The

reading room will also be combined with the Recorded Sound and Moving Image

research rooms.

The revision of copyright laws as they apply to choreographic works spurred

more choreographers to submit materials to the library, especially with the advent of

video. The ease of technology and the growing use of video by choreographers has

prompted the Library’s increased interest in preserving dance documentation.

The Library has every possible type of documentation including audio, books,

dance manuals, drawings, microforms, moving images, photographs, posters, prints, and

sheet music. Performing arts materials can be found in several divisions besides the

Music Division such as the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division,

the American Folklife Center, the Manuscript Division, the Rare Books and Special

Collection Division, and the Prints and Photographs Division.

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There is also an online guide to onsite performing arts resources as well as

digitized materials called the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Here visitors can view

upcoming concerts and events, special presentations, and browse collections, resources,

and exhibitions by subject, name, or title. There is a disclaimer that most resources are

only available onsite and some resources may need to be retrieved from offsite storage

facilities.

Figure 2 – Screen shot of digital object entry for an original Russian Ballet notebook in the
Performing Arts Encyclopedia.

Libby Smigel is the Dance Archivist for the Music Division department. She

previously worked at the Dance Heritage Coalition as the Executive Director before

taking a position at the Library of Congress in August 2015. As I mentioned previously, I

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was unable to speak to her although she did correspond with me briefly through e-mail.

There are a number of procedures set by the Library of Congress before senior

management can approve an interview or site visit. Time restrictions further complicated

the matter.

JEROME LAWRENCE AND ROBERT E. LEE THEATRE RESEARCH

INSTITUTE (TRI) AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (OSU)

The Theatre Research Institute (TRI) at The Ohio State University (OSU) is the

part of the Department of Theatre where archival materials documenting the performing

arts are acquired and preserved. This includes the “Mime, Dance, and Movement”

collection. Other divisions at OSU that support dance documentation include the

Department of Dance, the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design

(ACCAD), the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Dance Notation Bureau (DNB)

Extension for Education and Research.

The academic body largely uses the archives as an educational component in

classes. One of the more popular projects to conduct is a digital humanities project

creating a module about a certain aspect of the collections. Outside of the academic body,

the archives are open to the public where dancers, choreographers, dance companies, and

families and friends of the previously listed utilize the collections. Most people use the

archives for a particular reason rather than in preparation for creating something new.

The original TRI collection was created in 1951 by Dr. John McDowell and was

made up of 450,000 frames of microfilm from European collections documenting theatre

history of the Western world. Over time, original archival materials were collected

including 3D models, books, brochures, costumes, journals, manuscripts, newspaper

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clippings, painted drops, photographs, posters, programs, and scrapbooks. Currently, the

TRI has a preservation initiative to collect more design technology such as theatre

costume designs, lighting design, and theater technology materials. In addition to housing

the archives, the TRI published an annual journal called “Theatre Studies” from 1954 to

2001 and hosted a number of theatre history conferences.

Figure 3 – Screen shot of a finding aid for the Bebe Miller Collection in the OhioLINK Library
Catalog.

Nena L. Couch was hired in 1986 as the Head Curator of the William Oxley

Thompson Library Special Collections when the TRI became affiliated with University

Libraries. The Thompson Library focuses on humanities and social sciences including art

and music. Couch is also a certified dance notator in Labanotation and a founding

member of the Baroque dance troupe Les Menus Plaisirs. She has been an active member

of the Dance Heritage Coalition since 1992 and serves as the chair on their board of

directors.
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Valarie Williams is the Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities at OSU and the

Executive Director of the Arts Initiative at The Ohio State University. She is also a

certified dance notator in Labanotation and a dance professional.

Rachael Riggs Leyva is a dance archivist who processed and digitized materials

for the dance collections in the TRI during a fellowship funded by the Dance Heritage

Coalition in 2011 and 2012. She also worked as an embedded archivist with the Bebe

Miller Company whose collection is located at OSU. Leyva is also a certified dance

notator in Labanotation.

JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE

Ted Shawn founded Jacob’s Pillow in 1933, which is the oldest dance festival in

the United States (Owen 2011, 215). The main focus of Jacob’s Pillow is the festival that

runs ten weeks in the summer with performances by dance companies from all over the

world. At the same time, a training program is offered for young dancers. The archives

document and preserve the history and activities of the festival and its founder.

Ted Shawn launched the Denishawn Company with Ruth St. Denis in 1915. After

the company dissolved in 1929, Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers launched in 1933.

Shawn filmed himself and his dancers, creating the foundation of the Jacob’s Pillow

Archives. He also kept most of his correspondence and business papers.

The Jacob’s Pillow Archives are open and free to the public during the run of the

festival. Over 80,000 people attend the festival each year (Owen 2011, 217). Also, the

federal government in 2003 has acknowledged the archives by naming them a National

Historic Landmark. This is the first and only landmark that recognizes dance in the

United States (Owen 2011, 218). Most of the visitors to the archives are people who are
 20

seeing the festival performances. Exhibitions of performing companies from previous

years and the history of Jacob’s Pillow are on display in a nearby building. There is also a

reading room where visitors can watch performance videos.

A dance school teaching programs in ballet, contemporary, and social dances also

runs concurrent with the festival. The students of those programs will also use the

archives to watch as many videos as they can while they are onsite. The moving image

collections tend to be the biggest draw for any user of the archives.

Outside of the festival, mostly researchers and scholars use the archives on an

appointment basis. They host somewhere between five and ten researchers on site at a

time. There are also residencies for dance companies that may use the archives to view

older performances from their companies.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance creates its own dance documentation each season by

recording one or two performances for every company. One copy goes into the archives

and another copy goes to the dance company for their personal use. For Jacob’s Pillow

Dance, the use of video is a priority that started in 1982, since then amassing about 8000

videos to date. In addition to the performances, “PillowTalks” are also recorded. These

are post-performance talks where the choreographer or artistic representative talks about

what the audience just saw.

Norton Owen first started working at Jacob’s Pillow in 1977. He did not begin to

regularly work with the collections until 1982 when the organization received a grant

from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Owen 2011, 220). It was not until

1991 when an official curator position was created for him.

 21

In contrast, Brittany Austin, Associate Archivist and Librarian, started in spring of

2015. Her main focus is digitizing archival material and cataloging it in an online

database for public use. Because of the newness of the project, there have only been a

few collections digitized so far. More of the archival material is available onsite,

especially the majority of the video due to copyright and lack of digital space. The online

database will detail what materials Jacob’s Pillow Archives have and where to find them.

Figure 4 – Screen shot of the “Featured Galleries” on the front page of the online Jacob’s Pillow
Dance Archive.

In addition to film and video, the archives also have audiotapes, board minutes,

books, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, posters, and programs. Most of the

correspondence and business related papers are pre-digital age. Currently, Jacob’s Pillow

is trying to determine how to capture their e-mails and other digital missives as part of the

archive.
 22

CHAPTER TWO – CREATOR/ARCHIVIST RELATIONSHIPS

Across all of the interviews, a number of curators and archivists spoke about how

important it is to cultivate relationships with creators of dance. Sometimes these

relationships start with acquisitions, but more recently they start at documentation. The

archivists have mentioned that they need to change where the process begins to meet

creators where they are for the future preservation of the dance field.

New York Public Library (NYPL) for the Performing Arts works with

choreographers and dance companies in New York to set up professional film shoots

throughout the year. One copy of the photographic prints or video goes to the company

and another goes into the archive. Linda Murray said that NYPL reaches out to creators

to inquire whether they would be interested in doing a shoot in addition to shooting

companies that request it. NYPL focuses on creating a more complete record by reaching

out to smaller, less well-known companies because those companies don’t have the

resources to document their work. Dance documentation can be used to apply for grants

as evidence of what they can achieve in addition to retaining a copy for their personal

archives. Major, established companies tend to have the resources for documentation and

NYPL will ask for copies of their documents to archive.

Audio archives are another important component for the NYPL. In the early

1970s, an audio oral history project was undertaken that continues today. It became

especially important during the AIDS crisis in the 1990s. The dance division advocated

for additional funding to capture the stories of young choreographers and dancers before

they disappeared forever.

 23

The TRI at OSU does not do direct dance documentation, but they do their best to

enable it. The institute has an embedded archivist program that will take up residency

with a company, usually OSU alum, and help organize and document their creative

works. In one example, the Bebe Miller Company has a collection at the TRI and used

that dance documentation to create a new work called “A History.” Miller used the old

archival materials to revisit movements and the creation process. Rachael Riggs Leyva

worked as an embedded archivist, documenting the process of creating the new work

from the old ones. This led to an artist-driven archival creation as well. The Bebe Miller

Company published an eBook called “Dance Fort” that documents “A History” in

addition to the creation of a new work.

OSU also has a motion capture laboratory at the Advanced Computing Center for

the Arts and Design (ACCAD) that has been used to capture dance movement for

reconstruction works. Valarie Williams spoke of the example of reconstructing “Steps of

Silence” by Anna Sokolow from the notation score. “We realized in reviewing it, you

have the notation score which tells you where everything is placed… It would be

beneficial to be able to see that from multiple perspectives.” Williams went on to say that

motion capture does not provide quality of movement, but it can still be beneficial to look

at complicated movements and partner positioning from various angles.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance does all of their own documentation of dance performances

and post-performance talks with choreographers or artistic representatives. The focus of

the Pillow is primarily what happens at Jacob’s Pillow. However, as Norton Owen

pointed out, a large number of dance companies go to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival

every year from all over the country, even some international companies.
 24

The Pillow works closely with each company so that the company can benefit

from the services offered by the Pillow. Each video is mixed live to cut out post-

production time and includes wide shots and close-ups. This work process also ensures

that the video is available immediately to the dance company to use however they wish.

If for some reason the company is not happy with the video, the Pillow will be able to

document it again at another performance during the festival. The Pillow also makes their

raw footage available to each company at a nominal cost.

In addition to performances, the Pillow also records post-performance talks.

Owen stated that these talks are “perhaps even more important than what we’re capturing

in terms of performances” because they are totally unique.

In a similar avenue, acquisitions of already-created documentation materials from

dance companies also require a certain amount of interfacing to achieve the best option

for both sides. All of the organizations’ curators and archivists talk about the perceived

value of the objects and how respectful one needs to be to the creator or holder of the

objects.

The process for acquisitions at NYPL is similar to that of dance documentation

outreach. Interested choreographers or dance companies will either approach Linda

Murray or she will reach out to one to start a conversation about bringing their collection

to the library. Afterwards, Murray will determine if the materials hold research value,

represents the dance community in a particular moment in time, and also reflects who the

contributing creator was. She mentions that there is a cost in taking materials because the

archive is promising to maintain and preserve this item for hundreds of years. It is not

just the initial cost of bringing the materials in for processing and preservation one time.
 25

Murray talked about how excluding materials from the archives often weighs

heavy on her: “I’m denying that person or that family or whatever it may be, a place in

history. Every time I say no, you don’t get to come into the archive, I’m negating it. So

that weighs heavy on me. So I think about how our archive really needs to be an inclusive

archive and represent a totality of genres and communities and genres and experiences.

And that it’s not all that we consider to be the best example of dance, but the broadest

examples of things. So that we represent on a societal level, different ethnicities, different

parts of the world, different abilities, different genres of things, all these things have to be

accounted for or else they get forgotten.”

Nena Couch from the TRI at OSU spoke about the process of collecting dance

materials. She first cultivates a relationship with the creator of the collection to find out

what the desires are for the collection. Most potential donors are OSU alumni and reach

out to the TRI to donate materials. Then, Couch will usually go to the house or storage

place and do a preliminary inventory and then a first cut. Most books on dance will have

been already acquired by the TRI so the curators do not want duplicate copies. Primary

documents from the creator are always the preference for acquisitions. Also, the

inventory will help the creator sort through what they have and keep the materials that

they do not actually want to donate. It is more costly for the TRI if the creator changes

their mind about some materials later and wants them back.

Valarie Williams added that it is important to be respectful of the creator or the

creator’s family contributing their work to the TRI. Archival materials should be useful

and utilized in the archives, which is what the creator would have wanted in sharing their

materials. Having something sit in a box on a shelf, not viewed by anyone is not the
 26

objective for someone donating to a public archive. She sums it up by expressing “it’s a

wonderful experience and type of relationship that you build with either the family

donating to archives or the artist or dancer themselves donating to archives and sort of

working with them to determine what would be best utilized here, how it could be best

utilized, and really delicately massaging that relationship to make sure that everybody

wins.”

Jacob’s Pillow Dance is in a unique situation where the materials they acquire are

ones that they have created themselves. Norton Owen also said that Ted Shawn saved

“every scrap of paper or so it seems” so they already had a strong foundation to build

their archives without going to outside parties. Again, because of their focus on Jacob’s

Pillow exclusively, they do not make acquisitions except in very rare circumstances.

While making acquisitions, it is important for the curators and archivists to

discuss with the creator about the level of access to the materials and the intellectual

property (IP) rights. IP rights of the creator versus the level of access granted to the

general public happen to be a point of contention between creators and archivists.

Generally, archives are meant to share knowledge and resources with the public for the

greater good and other lofty ideals. Creators want to know their materials will not be

appropriated and that they will retain copyright protections on their work.

Murray from NYPL put the issue of IP rights concisely: “The central tension of

being a librarian is pushing as hard as you can to allow everybody, regardless of

background, to have the same ability to access knowledge while protecting the

knowledge of intellectual property. And that is heightened in a performing arts library

where you have personal relationships with the artists who are entrusting their life’s work
 27

to you and who are also incredibly protective about their work.” Public institutions like

the NYPL are obligated to provide open access to the public.

When creators make a contribution to NYPL, they have the choice between a non-

exclusive deed and an exclusive deed. The non-exclusive deed means that the creator

maintains their IP rights and they are giving permission to NYPL to store their materials

in the reading room, but it is not widely available for viewing outside of that. This also

excludes any form of digitization and posting on their website. An exclusive deed means

that the creator is giving NYPL their copyright. However, Murray points out that

obtaining one copyright does not necessarily clear the material for wider circulation. For

dance archival materials, just one person typically does not make every aspect of a dance.

The choreographer, dancers, lighting designer, costume designer, set designer, etc. all

retain IP rights when looking at the overall picture. The copyrights that all these people

hold need to be cleared before something can be made generally accessible outside of the

reading room.

Similar to the NYPL, the TRI at OSU has an obligation to make archival

materials accessible to the general public as a public educational institution. Couch stated

that they would not take materials that would be permanently restricted from viewing.

They do allow creators to restrict access to a portion of their collection for a certain

period of time. She used the example of someone in the process of writing their own

book and they restrict access to certain materials until their book comes out. This could

even mean years of restriction, but it could not be forever.

The TRI also has a deed of gift form similar to NYPL’s deeds. Couch points out

that they often run into materials that the donor does not necessarily have IP rights for.
 28

She mentions that those materials would remain within the library for onsite viewing and

would not be available for digitization. The TRI does not typically go out and find the IP

rights holder to get permission for digitization unless it is something extremely special

that they want to make available in some other way. Couch said that it is very costly and

time consuming to track down all the correct IP rights holders and then persuade them to

clear the materials in question.

Leyva mentioned that the level of access they have to their collection sometimes

frustrates artists. When she was working as an embedded archivist with Bebe Miller on

the “A History” dance, Miller was trying to take some things out of the collection to view

outside of the library in order to create the new work, but was unable to. Creators feel a

certain right to their archival materials, but once it has been given to the archive, it turns

into a midpoint position where it is yours, but it is not yours.

Another example about using the archives at the TRI is about the Bebe Miller

Company restaging “The Hendrix Project.” Caroline Beasley-Baker had painted dance

performance flooring in psychedelic patterns that would change colors depending on how

light shone on the floor. The Company was able to use the floors in her restaged work

called “The Hendrix Redux,” but there was a lot of resistance from the archives because

the dancers would be standing on these floors. The TRI limited the amount of time that

the Bebe Miller Company could use the floors so they would not wear down or decrease

the longevity of the archival material. In this case, they could only be used for a certain

number of performances. Leyva muses, “It’s sort of funny. It’s a floor. It’s meant to be

stepped on. It’s supposed to be used. But at the same time, it’s also a form of archive

material; a piece of history.”

 29

Another frustration is where choreographers have expressed a concern about how

their materials are presented. They feel as if they should have some say in preservation

whereas traditional archivists are looking at their requests and seeing how that would not

preserve their materials long-term. The artists would like their materials almost like in an

exhibit with an interactive component similar to seeing performing arts live. However, it

would be very hard to maintain physical materials in this way. Perhaps once technology

becomes more interactive, archivists and choreographers can work together to create

exhibitions without harming the original materials. Another concern is for IP rights and

the level of access. As mentioned above, multiple people would need to clear certain

materials for something to be widely viewed.

There are also barriers with accessing materials even if they have been made

available. Leyva used the example of The George Balanchine Foundation. The

foundation wants anyone who accesses their materials to ask them first before viewing a

dance, score, etc. In her experience, Leyva has never been told no when she or her

students have wanted to look at something. The foundation just wants to know who you

are and why you want to look at something before you do. This method of tracking who

sees what delays the time from when a researcher can view material. This could frustrate

choreographers or dancers who are not familiar with traditional archives.

For Jacob’s Pillow Dance, all dance companies sign a contract before they are

included in the festival. The staff at Jacob’s Pillow is willing to walkthrough and explain

the documentation rider in the contract if anyone pushes back about their performance

being recorded and archived at Jacob’s Pillow. Most companies that know of Jacob’s

Pillow are familiar with their video documentation online. Some companies are even
 30

enthusiastic about being recorded because maybe they cannot afford to be professionally

documented.

If a researcher wants to use a video from Jacob’s Pillow Dance, they would still

need to receive permission from the artist for its use because Jacob’s Pillow Dance does

not retain any rights to the work in the moving image. Most of their videos can only be

viewed onsite as a result. For the new Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive site, they are

operating under fair use and have not had any problems yet. The site is still very new and

not a year old yet. The site consists mostly of video clips and post-performance talks with

a few full-length performances.

With their other site that is the archival digital database, they do have a number of

photographs that need to be cleared before posting them publicly online. Another

consideration is the program notes that the in-residence scholars write for the festival

performances. Those also have to be cleared with the scholar about how they want the

program notes presented and the level of access associated with them. On site, all

archival materials can be viewed. It is only when it is translated to a digital platform that

IP rights can be tricky to navigate.

 31

CHAPTER THREE – CHALLENGES OF EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY

In our ever more connected world, technology is changing how we communicate

with each other and how documentation is created. It is not only an important

consideration when creating and promoting a dance, but something to consider afterwards

when documenting and preserving materials. This has created a challenge for curators

and archivists in how they collect, preserve, and interact with creators and archives

visitors.

The preservation of traditional physical materials has not changed much over

time. Murray from NYPL points out that the archival standard for paper has been stable

for a long time. Practices have not changed substantially, making it easy to train

conservationists because there is not a huge discrepancy in methodology between

someone trained 50 years ago and someone coming out of school today.
 32

Figure 5 – Digital image taken by Rachael Riggs Leyva of a scrapbook page in better housing in the
Thompson Library at the Ohio State University.

Generally, paper-based materials go through the initial preservation process and

get put in the appropriate housing, which is typically an acid-free box. Then, the

materials are placed in a climate-controlled room and are now considered stable. The

only other consideration for the material is how it is delivered to the reading room or an

exhibit. Those considerations include how much light it is being exposed to, what

pollutants are in the air, who is going to be handling it, the temperature it is going to be

in, and how long it is going to be there. After considering all of these factors, the archivist

can make a good determination of what the object can withstand to keep it stable.
 33

Figure 6 – Digital image taken by Rachael Riggs Leyva of the Dalcroze Collections in the Thompson
Library at the Ohio State University.

Less traditional materials include film and magnetic tape in moving images and

audio formats. These also have a physical component in addition to the data stored on

them. The method for preservation of these materials is constantly shifting. Murray

mentioned that when she worked at the Library of Congress 10 years ago, the method for

preservation at that time was to transfer all moving images to DigiBeta. Then, it shifted to

DVDs and now at NYPL, she makes everything into digital files. Creating a digital
 34

preservation copy is the current method of preservation for all moving image and audio

material.

Figure 7 – Digital image taken by Rachael Riggs Leyva of piles of audio reels in the Thompson
Library at the Ohio State University.

Leyva from the TRI also experienced firsthand the changes in technology. While

working with the Bebe Miller collection, there was a variety of moving image formats
 35

including Hi8 tapes, Beta tapes, VHS, mini HD DVDs, and DVDs. The collection ranged

from 1985 to 2010, which is not that long of a time period. The concern with receiving all

these different formats is that you also need the correct equipment to access the

information. If the equipment no longer exists or works properly, that data is lost. Leyva

elaborates on the importance of possessing the right equipment: “Is there a thing that can

make that come alive again? Because when you have a photograph, you have a project’s

piece of paper or you have a choreographer’s handwritten notebook or something like

that, you can just access it by having that thing whereas the digital needs to have this

intermediary that may or may not continue to exist.”

Austin from Jacob’s Pillow used the example of Japanese companies

discontinuing the production of VCRs. This news broke a few days before our interview.

Archival sites were sharing articles about it on social media. She elaborates that archivists

deal with obsolete formats and the capability to access things a lot. She believes that it

will only continue to become more of a challenge as older formats stop being produced.

Time is a major factor in converting analog formats to digital ones.

Many archives practice the “Lots of Copies, Keep Stuff Safe” (LOCKSS)

concept. The institution makes multiple copies and keeps a portion of them in a

geographically remote storage facility. That is one method of keeping materials secure,

however it does not take into account that digital files break down so you have to keep re-

digitizing the copies, which is time consuming. Couch from the TRI also mentions that

preserving video is expensive because of the different formats and the fact that there is

just so much of it.

 36

Murray comments that the workflow never ends this way. “We’re living in an era

where libraries and archives are being asked to work with tighter budgets and fewer staff.

So the work that it takes to preserve all of our audio and digital is substantial and it seems

to be sustained. But it’s not something that when we do it, it goes away.” The current

preservation methods themselves will eventually require updates. This is an ongoing

challenge in the field that archivists will struggle with for a very long time.

However, there has been a huge shift away from physical material to digital

material not just in dance, but also in culture at large. Digital items like e-mail, desktop

emulations, electronic records, and digital files of moving image or audio are becoming

more prevalent. Creators are moving away from writing things down and using

technology more and more for correspondence, inspiration, and documentation. Most

dance creation is happening virtually. Even press materials are sent through e-mail, social

media, or a website.

“All of those methodologies by which we now promote our art and make our art,

they’re not secure,” warns Murray. There is a general misconception that people believe

when something is saved to the cloud, that it will be safe and secure. It is better if it is

saved on a hard drive and there are multiple backups of files.

Couch adds that the digital preservation form takes up so much space. Austin also

stressed this point. Sometimes working with the information technology (IT) department

can be a point of contention because they have different priorities than the archivists.

Austin says, “We want to save everything as much as possible, but video files are

gigantic.” IT would rather make the files more efficient rather than capture everything at

the highest quality possible.

 37

Austin also said the number one challenge was time in any digitization project.

The amount of time that it takes to digitize all these different video formats is immense.

Editing what is essential and what is not included in a moving image can be difficult.

Prioritizing what gets digitized first can be a challenge. All analog formats need to be

digitized in real time. Most recorded performances are 1-2 hours long and digitization

happens as it is running. When there are a large number of videos to digitize, this can

easily turn into hundreds or thousands of hours.

In addition to the time, skill is also required to digitize video. People need to be

trained to use the best software available to the organization. Since software can also

update to new versions every few years, this can be another challenge to overcome when

people need to be re-trained in new processes. Austin used the example at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance. The staff used to use FinalCut Pro to digitize and edit their video documentation.

Recently, the entire organization switched to Adobe Premiere. Staying on top of new

technologies and software by offering training to stay ahead of the learning curve can be

difficult.

Even when the physical materials received are digitized, there is no guarantee that

the quality will be good. The archive will receive as high a RPM that the digitizing unit,

whether it is in house or sent to a specialist, can get. The age of the material and the

amount of degradation will also lower the quality of the digital copy.

Formats of digital files can also be a concern. Leyva uses the example of

Microsoft Word documents. She has received some that will not open because they are

not compatible with the current version. People believe that since it is Microsoft and it

has been around forever, that it will always be the best choice for saving notes. Leyva
 38

also mentions PDF files that are considered standard currently. She expresses, “Who

knows in the future if that will even be a file type we use anymore. And then what

happens to all of it?”

The advantage of digital files over analog formats is that reformatting is a fairly

quick process and not time-based. Owen from Jacob’s Pillow states that theoretically a

digital file will last forever. Archivists need to stay proactive when new or updated

formats become the standard.

Despite the changes in technology and the challenges that come with it, Williams

sums up the responsibility of archivists by stating, “While the technology may change

over time, what we need to collect remains constant.”

 39

CONCLUSION

Curators and archivists may not always see eye-to-eye with dance companies, but

they are attempting to preserve what they can with the help and collaboration of the

creators. The relationship established between the archivists and the creators is one of the

most important for the archives to have. Without that, there are no archival dance

materials to preserve and share with the public.

All of the interviewees expressed a need to preserve dance because of the nature

of the art form being ephemeral. There’s no score and no script that perfectly captures

dance in the moment. A recorded performance is not the same as a live one, but

documentation still can be useful for learning about the culture at the time, inspiration for

new creative work, and restaging older works. Williams from the TRI at OSU explains

the ephemerality of dance: “While we can preserve dance from many angles and using as

many different media as possible, you’re never going to be able to capture that moment

when a dance is first performed. There are all sorts of historical and cultural contexts

surrounding first performances and dance works and according to the way dancers are

trained in that moment of time. You can never sort of transfer that ephemeral knowledge

to the future. You can pull the fragments out of that performance and you can sort of pull

the artifacts left behind, but you’re never going to be able to completely recreate a dance

work in its entirety, in that historical framework and in that cultural context.”

Owen from Jacob’s Pillow Dance used an analogy to illustrate the importance of

preserving dance. “Suzanne Carbonneau, when she was asked about the value of the

recorded image – she teaches at George Mason University so she was speaking from her
 40

standpoint as a college professor and why she found it of value to use the moving image

when she’s talking about dance in the classroom. And she made the analogy of it would

be as if, think about an English class and maybe the topic is Moby Dick and rather than

being able to assign the class to read the book and to experience it firsthand, instead the

only way to communicate anything about it would be to let the professor describe the

book. Well, let me tell you about this book and here’s what it’s about and it boggles the

mind in terms of not having the primary document, the primary work available to be able

to be looked at and discussed. And I think that’s what we’re talking about here. If you do

not have ‘the dance’ and not just a review of it or a photograph of it or a description of it

then that is lost to time.”

Choreographers and dancers are using the archives in these motivations.

However, more dance researchers than dance creators are utilizing the archives for their

means. Perhaps in the future it would be possible to involve the dance community more.

Murray from NYPL mentioned that when dancers are trained, they learn

technique and choreography, but she says that in her experience they do not learn dance

history or theory. This is unlike training to be a musician or in theatre. As a result,

dancers know very little about their own discipline and the people that came before them.

Archives could potentially grow the next generation of the dance community through

education.

The growth of technology and interconnectedness has also affected how dance

companies use archives. A lot of moving image and audio clips can be found online, but

most materials are still only available on site. The legalistic reasons why can be

confusing to some who just wants to see something without bad intentions. Those reasons
 41

have become complicated with the ability to reach a wider audience without as much

regulation by the archives.

However, digital files are becoming the new normal and are easier to share and

reformat if necessary. The unproven nature of the formats is daunting to the archivists

that have promised to preserve the data. But the availability to choreographers and

dancers to record data on their phones, tablets, or computers, make documentation

quicker and easier, preserving more aspects of dance than were previously able to be

preserved.

The dance preservation field may never catch up to the newest technology, but

processes need to be in place to handle what to do when adapting to a new format. Often,

there needs to be a balance between the latest technology and what’s been tried and

remained popular and stable. This can be difficult to judge. But as creators try out new

technology to help create, understand, and reshape dance, archivists need to stay ahead of

the learning curve in order to collaborate effectively in documenting and preserving

dance.

In the course of speaking with the curators and archivists from every organization,

they shared their opinions on what the dance preservation field should focus on in the

future. Most have to do with technology challenges and how that will create changes in

documentation and preservation processes. I would like to end with some

recommendations for archivists and dance creators who need to continue collaboration

for the success of dance preservation.

Linda Murray from NYPL suggests that archives need to rethink their policies on

when to reach out to creators for assisting in documentation. The traditional method is to
 42

wait until someone has stopped working and then go out and collect their materials that

they have amassed over the course of their career. Digital materials may disappear after

five years and certainly it may be very hard to find certain files after 10 years.

Institutions will need to develop policies on how to assist creators in preserving

their work throughout their careers. In return, the creators will need to take ownership of

their responsibilities. They will need to educate themselves on how to best use

technology to collect and archive materials digitally. Dance educators could teach young

dancers and choreographers about the importance of documenting and archiving their

work so they can be in a better position to preserve their creative works as they enter their

careers. Creators will also need to use some sort of system when cataloging their files.

Murray asks, “Are they putting it in specific folders by project, are they sorting things out

by year, or is everything just higgledy-piggledy on the desktop and nobody will ever be

able to make sense of it when they’re gone?”

Libby Smigel from the Library of Congress had similar thoughts on

documentation and preservation going forward. She also stresses the importance of

creators keeping their materials in order to use them for anniversaries, exhibits, grant

applications, teachings, and restaging. However, most creators do not have the education

or capacity to preserve their materials. This is where archivists need to step in and assist.

Right now archivists are too isolated at their respective organizations. This collaboration

can help create what Smigel calls a “living archive.” However, for this recommendation

to succeed, an entire culture shift will need to occur in both the archivist and dance

communities.
 43

Speaking on culture, Nena Couch from the TRI at OSU emphasizes that dance is

a part of cultural heritage. She uses the example of a hula dancer who looked at some of

the Labanotation scores of hula dance in the Thompson Library. The scores were

recorded in the 1970s and when this young woman reviewed the scores, there had been a

technique change in the arm movement. Without the documentation of this kind of

critical piece of dance and its subsequent preservation, no one would have known there

was a change in the performance of hula.

Another point Couch brings up is that rights issues associated with moving image

are particularly problematic for dance. She hears repeatedly from dance faculty that it is

important for students to see the major companies and choreographers, but there is not a

large selection of moving image material available. The Dance Heritage Coalition has

worked on creating a fair use document for moving images of dance. However, most

archivists are being cautious and only using it for short excerpts and not full works.

Ultimately, this is a larger issue that the dance preservation community is not going to be

able to champion on its own.

Leyva also talks about access restriction to materials because of rights. Physical

materials cannot be digitized because of copyright holders not granting free access or

being absent. This means that a majority of dance archival materials can only be accessed

on site. This can be very difficult for the dance community to access if they are not in the

local area of the archive. There needs to be a way to open up access, which is not what

digitization has achieved. This will be an ongoing question that needs to be continually

weighed and balanced between open access for the public and protection of IP rights for

the choreographers.
 44

Documentation is only the beginning step towards preserving dance materials.

Owen stresses the importance of creators using documentation however they can to

record their creative processes and performances. Instead of comparing themselves to

another archival institution or dance company, creators should use whatever they have

even if that means a pencil and paper. As long as it is something that will not disappear

before someone can get to it for preservation. He uses the example of José Limón. All he

had was a pencil and several legal pads where he wrote the beginnings of an

autobiography. Now those writings are a book.

Austin expanded on Owen’s recommendations to creators. She says that culture

now seems to be about capturing everything. People are more aware of dating something.

It has become ingrained in us through social media sharing. The technology now is more

conducive to capturing something easily as opposed to just a century before.

The challenge with the major influx of digital materials is whether they are

properly labeled and categorized. If archival materials are not correctly identified, then no

one can find and learn from them. Austin states that is why it is important to have artist-

driven and crowd-sourced archives. People who know or were there are able to identify

materials even if the creator is gone.

The importance of dance preservation is just as important as preserving any part

of culture. The challenges of time and technology are only the newest hurdles in the

preservation of an ephemeral art form. For the future of dance preservation, it is apparent

that creators and archivists will need to collaborate and learn from each other to grow the

reach of the field. Hopefully in the future, dance education and documentation will take

up a larger station in the dance community for the betterment of future dance generations.
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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1) What types of materials are typically being archived?

2) What difficulties do you face preserving and updating older materials?

3) Who are your target audiences and how do they use the archives?

4) What dance groups do you work with and in what capacity?

5) What challenges do you face working collaboratively with choreographers

wanting to contribute to the archives?

6) Are there general considerations or guidelines about legality and IP rights?

7) What are the benefits of preserving dance?

8) Do you have any recommendations for the future of the dance preservation field?

9) Is there any one else I should talk to about your archives?

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