Scope and arrangement
The Bernadine Jennings papers, dated 1969 to 2005, contain material collected by Jennings during her tenure at Dance Giant Steps, Inc. The bulk of the collection is printed matter reflecting the dance companies (national and international, experimental and traditional) that performed in New York City. The printed matter provided Jennings with timely information about the dance companies that she wrote about in Attitude Magazine. The collection holds a significant amount of material representative of African-American dance troupes.
The files hold many press kits with promotional material on dance programs along with handbills, photographs, media reviews, press releases, postcards and some dance publications.
Most of the photographs were removed from the press kits by the Dance Division and arranged by type of dance style.
The remaining material is a small amount of resumes, correspondence and sketches. The correspondence was mostly incoming to Jennings as editor of the magazine Attitudes. The letters include comments on the articles, general news, and invitations to dance events. There are some costume design sketches from the experimental opera "A Chinaman's Chance."
The bulk of the printed matter focuses on three types of dance: ballet, folk and ethnic and modern. Companies represented include the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Asian American Dance Theatre, Les Ballets Africains, Bolshoi Ballet, Carlota Santana Flamenco Vivo, Complexions, Dance Africa, Dance Brazil, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Eleo Pomare Dance Company, Feld Ballet, H.T. Chen & Dancers, Houston Ballet, Koninklijk Ballet van Vlaanderen, Lines Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Co., New York City Ballet, and Philadanco!
Arrangement
The collection was organized by document type. Within this the files are alphabetical by file title.