- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"3 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"5 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*MGZMD 143", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"19780", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1950-1993", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1950/1993"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1950
- date_inclusive_end
-
1993
- keydate
-
1950
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Bella Malinka papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. <span class=\"subarea\">Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</span></span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"This collection documents the teaching career of Bella Malinka, dance educator, choreographer and dancer, who taught at New York’s School of the Performing Arts from 1949 to 1981."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Bella Malinka papers, *MGZMD 143. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Malinka, Bella", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Educator, choreographer, and dancer Bella Malinka was born in the United States ca.1923. Little is known of her early life. She graduated from high school in 1940.</p> <p>Malinka studied ballet with Anton Dolin, Leon Danelian, Bronislava Nijinska, and Edward Caton, among others. She also studied modern dance, theater dance, and ethnic dance with such dance notables as Hanya Holm, Agnes De Mille, Bhupesh Guha, Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, and Frederico Rey.</p> <p>As a dancer, Bella Malinka performed with a number of dance companies, including the Metropolitan Opera Touring Company under Lillian Moore, in Connecticut Opera Company’s <span class=\"title\">Carmen</span> by Bizet (1944), and Toledo Civic Opera in <span class=\"title\">The New Moon</span> by Sigmund Romberg, and <span class=\"title\">Katinka</span>by Rudolf Friml, both in 1945. She toured with <span class=\"title\">Stage Door Follies</span> in the 1940s, as well as dancing in such operettas as <span class=\"title\">The Merry Widow</span> by Franz Lehar, <span class=\"title\">The Student Prince</span> by Sigmund Romberg, <span class=\"title\">Rose Marie</span> by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and <span class=\"title\">The Firefly</span> by Rudolf Friml. She also danced with modern dancer Marie Marchowsky’s company (1956), with Indian dancer Bhupesh Guha and Company, as well as in vaudeville, nightclubs, and for the USO.</p> <p>Malinka taught at the June Taylor School in the late 1960s and was directress and teacher at Utah State University at Logan (1968-1969) and for the South Bronx Community Project at P.S. 5 (1967). She was a guest teacher for Katherine Dunham School of Dance in Haiti (1962), for Ballet Puertorriqueño (1966, 1978-1979), Ralou Manou in Athens, Greece (1978), and for Eliot Feld School of Ballet (1980). In summer, from 1973 to 1979, Bella Malinka taught master classes for Alfonso Figueroa’s Birmingham, Alabama Civic Ballet (1973-1979).</p> <p>Her ballets were also performed by Ballet Puertorriqueño (<span class=\"title\">Allegresse</span>, 1978-1979), and by R.M.T. (Regine Mont-Rosier Trouillot) School of Dance (<span class=\"title\">Mon Fils</span>, date unknown).</p> <p>A faculty member at New York City’s School of Performing Arts (later Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts) from its inception, Bella Malinka taught there from 1949 to 1981, eventually becoming Senior Ballet Teacher. She developed and taught a ballet survey course to all freshman dance students. Malinka choreographed annual student performances, numerous assemblies, and appearances ballet students made under the School of Performing Arts’auspices, such as the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and the ballet <span class=\"title\">Union Maid</span>, performed to Woody Guthrie’s music, for the United Federation of Teachers (1979).</p> <p>She also presented lecture-demonstrations on various topics. One of these, <span class=\"title\">Young Dancers</span>, was broadcast on CBS TV in February 1961. Malinka wrote the script for and narrated the television program, as well as for the assembly version for the school.</p> <p>At School of Performing Arts, with choreographer George Balanchine’s permission, Bella Malinka staged his ballets <span class=\"title\">Serenade</span> (1960), <span class=\"title\">Pas de Neuf</span>(1957), and <span class=\"title\">Symphony in C</span> (1958). She also choreographed <span class=\"title\">Dance Poem</span> (1950), <span class=\"title\">Ballade</span> (1953), and <span class=\"title\">Musical Chairs</span> (1955), all with music by Martin Dall. Malinka’s <span class=\"title\">Allegresse</span> was premiered in 1957 and danced by Ramón Segarra, as one of his graduation roles at School of Performing Arts.</p> <p>Other ballets include <span class=\"title\">Three Dances</span>(1956), <span class=\"title\">Archduke Variation</span> (1962), <span class=\"title\">Lyric Suite</span>(1963), <span class=\"title\">Les Arabesques</span> (1964), and <span class=\"title\">Bagatelles</span>(1966). Some of Bella Malinka’s outstanding students include George De la Peña, Eliot Feld, Miguel Godreau, Christian Holder, Loida Iglesias, and Daniel Levins.</p> <p>In the 1970s, she was also asked by the New York City Board of Education to review standards for licensing dance teachers. She left the High School of Performing Arts in 1981 having filed and won (on appeal) a grievance against Lydia Joel, Chairman of the Dance Department. Malinka wrote an article in 1983 on High School of Performing Arts for <span class=\"title\">Dance Magazine</span>, but it was never published.</p> <p>Bella Malinka married and divorced composer Martin Dall, and has a son, Ivan Barry Dall II.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Bella Malinka Papers consist mostly of materials relating to her career as a teacher, most notably at the School of Performing Arts in New York City. These include correspondence, programs, student compositions and reports, yearbooks, teaching materials, clippings, a few photographs, administrative papers, designs for costumes, sets, and posters, and files of papers Malinka assembled relating to the grievance she filed with the Board of Education.</p> <p>Papers relating to Bella Malinka’s other professional activities include a Life Experience Credit Presentation she compiled, in order to increase her professional grade as a teacher for the Board of Education, as well as correspondence, programs, publicity materials, and ephemera on her teaching and choreographing activities outside the School of Performing Arts. With the exception of a few pieces of correspondence, there are no personal papers included in the collection.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Bella Malinka papers are arranged in two series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19780#c384271'>Series II: Other Professional Activities, - and</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of the Life Experience Credit presentation material Bella Malinka compiled as the equivalent of an advanced degree, in order to improve her position level, as well as general materials. These range from a small amount of correspondence to the paper she prepared advocating separate licenses for ballet and modern dance teachers for the New York City Board of Education in 1982.</p> <ul> <li>Sub-series 1 - Life Experience Credit Presentation, ca. 1981</li> <li>Sub-series 2 - General, 1956 - 1990 and undated</li></ul></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19780#c384292'>Series III: Artwork, - and</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>undated</div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Series I: School of Performing Arts <ul> <li>Sub-series 1 - Dance Survey Course</li> <li>Sub-series 2 - Grievance Papers</li> <li>Sub-series 3 - General</li></ul></li> <li>Series II: Other Professional Activities <ul> <li>Sub-series 1 - Life Experience Credit Presentation</li> <li>Sub-series 2 - General</li></ul> <ul> <li>Series III: Artwork</li></ul></li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Bella Malinka Papers were donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in 1993 by Bella Malinka.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Photocopying prohibited.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</p>"}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Camille Croce Dee; Machine-readable finding aid created by Camille Croce Dee.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
3 linear feet (5 boxes)
- date_start
-
1950
- date_end
-
1993