Found 104 collections related to Manuscripts -- Collections

Correspondence including telegrams, copies of outgoing letters, and some typed transcripts of telegrams and letters, inventories, financial papers, notes and plans, clippings, programs, announcements, and drafts of contracts and reports relating primarily to the early activities of Sergei Diaghilev in bringing Russian ballet and opera to Western Europe. Between 1907 and 1913 Diaghilev collaborated with Astruc regarding the organization of his various artistic enterprises, including the Paris seasons of ballet and opera, negotiations for tours to the United States and South America, summer performances at Deauville in 1912, and a ballet season in Lyons in 1913. Documentation of the first Saison Russe presented by Diaghilev at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris in 1909 is particularly thorough and includes inventories of costumes and scenery for the works presented and a confidential report on the season which Astruc sent to Baron Frederiks, Chief Minister of the Russian Imperial Court. Astruc's dealings with Ida Rubinstein and Natasha Trouhanova regarding enterprises undertaken independent of Diaghilev are also documented. less

The correspondence and writings of Agnes de Mille cover the period of 1871-1993 and were in the possession of Agnes de Mille at the time of her death. They relate to de Mille's life and career, and that of her family (including husband, William Prude, mother, Anna George de Mille, father, William de Mille, sister, Margaret de Mille, grandfather, Henry George and son, Jonathan Prude). less

The Lucia Chase papers span the years ca. 1899 to 1982 and are divided into two main series: personal correspondence, diaries, financial records, and miscellany; and business correspondence, company and financial records, and miscellany. less

The Pauline Lawrence Limón Collection mainly documents the early years of the José Limón Dance Company and the years immediately preceding the company's inception. There is almost no information beyond 1958. The material is arranged into five major categories: Personal Correspondence, Professional Correspondence, Professional Life, Private Life, and Banking Records. less

American Ballet Theatre was founded in 1939 with the intention of creating an American company of international stature, a museum of the dance, “which would preserve the best of the classic tradition of Europe and at the same time lay the foundation for a new tradition, American in concept and spirit.” Its guiding principle was to encourage collaboration between artists with no single choreographer taking precedence. The records of the company attest to the pursuit of these goals. less

Papers of the dancer, teacher, and choreograpner including letters, cards, diaries, telegrams, notebooks, contract, and memorabilia, mainly relating to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, to the premieres of Chamié's ballets “Birthday” (1949) and “Prima Ballerina” (1950), and to the Chamié Trio. less

The Ted Shawn Collection documents Ted Shawn's personal life as well as his career as a dancer, choreographer, and writer from 1903 to 1971. Although the bulk of the material dates from 1960 to 1971, there is a significant amount for the years 1920 through 1959. There is very little material prior to 1920. The collection is divided into nine major sections: Correspondence; Ted Shawn's Annual Newsletters; Unpublished Manuscript of Ted Shawn's Autobiography; Written Works by Ted Shawn; Written Works about Ted Shawn; Notes for Ted Shawn's Thirty-Three Years of American Dance;Denishawn Dancers and Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers; Delsarte System of Expression; Miscellaneous. less

The records of the Royal Academy of Dancing document that organization and much of its work from its beginnings in 1920 as the Association of Operatic Dancing through 1960 (bulk dates 1933-1955). Most of the material consists of correspondence, minutes of meetings, documents, drafts of speeches and reports, schedules of classes and events, and some financial information. The correspondence and documents relating to the application and granting of the Royal Charter are extensive. Correspondence to and from Adeline Genée, the founder-president (known also as “Madame,” “Nina,” or “Mrs. Isitt”), is important and is found throughout the collection. Of interest are the accounts of life in London during World War II in correspondence for the years 1940-1941 in the following series or subseries: II. Correspondence - Genée; VI. Examination Tours - Australasia; and VII. Scholarships. less

For the most part the Royes Fernandez Papers (ca. 1945-1980) comprise correspondence. This series (784 items), dating from 1945 until shortly before his death in 1980, is predominantly letters written to Fernandez from personal and professional friends and audience members. They include birthday and holiday greeting cards. less

Ruth Page, American dancer, choreographer, and director of ballet companies, was born in 1899, the daughter of a physician in Indiana. Her dance studies began with local teachers in Indianapolis. Like many a young girl, she was inspired by seeing Anna Pavlova perform, and actually did perform with the legendary dancer's troupe during a tour to South America in 1918. Her training continued in Chicago with Adolph Bolm who created The Birthday of the Infantafor her, dancing the role with Bolm's Ballet Intime at the London Coliseum in 1920. Her varied performing career included being premiere danseuse with Chicago Allied Arts from 1924-1927, Irving Berlin's Music Box Revue, a brief time with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, touring the Orient and Moscow in the late 1920's, solo tours throughout the United States, touring with Harald Kreutzberg 1932-1933, and premiere danseuse with the Chicago Grand Opera Company from 1934-1937. Chicago was her base, having married the successful lawyer Thomas Hart Fisher, who also managed her dance career affairs. With her partner Bentley Stone, she formed Page-Stone Ballet Company in Chicago in 1938. Page was one of the first to tackle American themes in her dances including the ballad of Frankie and Johnny(choreographed with Stone), Poe's poem The Bells,and the story of a revivalist preacher Billy Sunday.She worked with the Chicago Lyric Opera and toured a Chicago Opera Ballet company, introducing many great dancers to the American public, including Rudolf Nureyev's New York City debut in March, 1962. With the resources of a successful husband, she commissioned scores from Aaron Copland, Darius Milahud and others, designs from Isamu Noguchi, Pavel Tchelitchev, and André Delfau, whom she married in 1983, many years after the death of Thomas Fisher. She wrote two books, Page by Pageand Class.The recipient of the Dance Magazine Award (1990), the Illinois Gubernatorial Award (1985) and several honorary degrees, she died in Chicago April 7, 1991. A collection of items, mostly correspondence, relating to publicity and public relations for tours of Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet (later called Ruth Page's International Ballet). The correspondence is chiefly between Thomas Hart Fisher, representing Miss Page and the Chicago Opera Ballet, and representatives of Columbia Artists Management, Inc. Chief subjects include the compilation of press and souvenir books, the engagement of guest artists (including Kirsten Simone and Henning Kronstam), and tour publicity. Other items include sections of pressbooks, articles by Page, and copies of public testimonial to Ruth Page's cultural accomplishments. less

Documents Ruth St. Denis' personal life and professional career. Divided into eight sections; autobiographical material, including St. Denis' personal journal, history letters, and miscellaneous items (246 folders); writings, including addresses, essays, lectures, and poetry written by St. Denis and others (83 folders); information on the Denishawn era, including choreographic notes, Denishawn technique, and Denishawn schools (54 folders); St. Denis' post-Denishawn choreographic projects, including choreographic notes, descriptions of ballets, and production arrangements (l0 folders); music scores, primarily for the choreographic works of St. Denis and Ted Shawn (17 folders); business records, including professional materials (bookings, publicity, program drafts), financial materials (budgets, bank statements, contracts), and miscellaneous (51 folders); St. Denis' projects and organizations, including information on her Creative Arts Colony, Society of Spiritual Arts, Ruth St. Denis Foundation, film projects, etc. (47 folders); and miscellany. less

Selma Jeanne Cohen is an author, editor, lecturer, and teacher, and the records of several of her teaching projects comprise the bulk of this collection. From 1965-1969, at the Connecticut College School of Dance, (which became the American Dance Festival in 1969), she taught or lectured on dance history or writing on dance, classes which were open to all students at the summer school. The Critics' Conferences, 1970-1972, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and held during the Connecticut College - American Dance Festivals, were for a select group of professional critics, to train them in “the skills of describing and evaluating dance.” The National Critics Institutes were sponsored by the O'Neill Foundation, to provide “intensive on-the-job training for young critics,” and Cohen taught there during the summers of 1969, 1971 and 1972. less

This collection relates primarily to the last ten years of les Ballets Russes of Serge Dyagilev. There are a few items from 1910-1911 regarding Michel Fokine. The Papers have been divided into three sections and arranged chronologically. The first comprises holograph copies and some originals of letters written by Dyagilev to various correspondents, such as Michel Fokine, Guido Gatti, Désiré Inghelbrecht, Sergei Grigoriev, Serge Lifar, and Alicia Markova. The second section consists of letters from various correspondents to Dyagilev, as well as letters relating to Dyagilev but neither written to nor by him. The last section contains documents, contracts, and receipts. Some of the material concerns the process in judicial cases brought against Dyagilev by Rastorgoueff, Mme. Bewicke, Gulbenkian, and Nijinsky—various artists of les Ballets Russes—for failure to execute contracts. Other pieces are, by contrast, relative to the cases brought by Dyagilev against Fokine and de Palignac. less

Serge Lifar, dancer, choreographer and author, was born in Kiev, Russia in 1905. He studied with Bronislava Nijinska, who brought him to Paris in 1923 where he joined Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He became a protege of Diaghilev, was named premiere danseur in 1925, and remained with the company through it s last season in 1929. These letters were written by Lifar toDiaghilev when Lifar was 19 to 23 years old. Sotheby's described the contents of the collection: "The letters are in Russian and are about Lifar's education in Italy, supervised by Diaghilev, and his ballet studies including his lessons with Enrico Cecchetti in Turin, reporting Ceccehtti's changes in his arm movements... his problems with his hands, consultations with doctors, his attempts to learn French, his visits to Florence, Fiesole, Milan and...Venice, his impressions on seeing the works of Raphael, Botticelli, Mantegna, and Michelangelo... his relationship with Diaghilev...his opinions of other dancers ... his own performances...(Tricorne)... [and] rehearsals for Zephyr et Flore and The Triumph of Neptune..." less

When Sergei Denham died in 1970, the records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo continued to be maintained by Michael Subotin and Watson Washburn at the offices of the Ballet Foundation. Denham's personal papers were given to his daughter, Mrs. Irina Pabst. After the death of Washburn in 1974, the two surviving trustees of the Ballet Foundation, Mrs. Pabst and John Gray, Washburn's nephew, donated the office records and Denham's papers to The Dance Collection in a series of annual gifts. With Subotin's death in 1984, the Ballet Foundation offices on West 57th Street finally closed, and his papers were added to the company records. less

Papers of the dancer and teacher, 1929-1947, including letters (from Bronislava Nijinska, Marquis de Cuevas, Sergei Denham, et al.), contracts, biographical and legal information, and memorabilia. less

Raymond Johnson (1946-1989), was a student at the Henry Street Playhouse and a member of the Henry Street Settlement teaching staff. From 1963 to 1969 he was a dancer with the Alwin Nikolais Dance Company. In 1969 he performed with the Murray Louis Dance Company and with choreographers Rod Rodgers and Rudy Perez. He performed his own choreography and toured nationally with his six person troupe from 1964 to 1980. This collection consists primarily of correspondence and related materials during his years with the Raymond Johnson Dance Company and the New School of the Performing Arts, and includes program materials from his years with the Alwin Nikolais Dance company. The collection contains five folders of written and printed materials from 1964-1969 and from 1978-1980. Series #1 covers selected years (1964-1969) during his time with the Alwin Nikolais Dance Company and the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse and includes programs, articles, a letter of recommendation from Alwin Nikolais, flyers, brochures, programs and an airline ticket. There are no dated materials from 1969 to 1977. Series #2 is dated 1978 and contains correspondence, ticket order forms, and a list of Board/Trustees/Contributors for the Raymond Johnson Dance Company. Also included is an employment history for RJ and a letter to President Carter. Series #3 includes a quarterly progress report from the Raymond Johnson Dance Company/Saracen Foundation for Dance and a 16 page proposal for a pilot youth project of RJDC/The New School for the Performing Arts, all dated between 1978 to 1980. Series #4 is dated 1979 and contains correspondence and a photo regarding RJ's Solo Dancer Residency at Saugerties Central Schools. Featured are 21 letters from students regarding his performance and residency. Series #5 is dated 1980 and contains materials related to possible master classes at the New School of the Performing Arts: biographies, brochures, a press release, letters and miscellaneous notes. less

The major part of this collection consists of correspondence to and from Irving Deakin primarily in relation to his association with Hurok Attractions and as General Manager of the San Francisco Civic Ballet in 1947-48 and in relation to his personal and professional associations with Adolf Bolm, Anton Dolin, and Antal Dorati. The collection falls into a natural chronological arrangement that gives a broad view of Deakin's associations with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Original Ballet Russe, the beginnings of Ballet Theatre, the WQXR Music and balletradio program, the San Francisco Civic Ballet, and the first American tour of the Sadler's Wells Ballet. less

Irving Deakin was born in Great Britain and studied at Eastbourne College and the Royal College of Music. A free-lance ballet and music critic, he came to the United States in the 1920's and worked as a publicity person for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Sadler's Wells Theater Ballet, and Ballet Theatre. From 1937 to 1943 he hosted a radio program entitled Music and Balletfor station WQXR, New York, and in 1947-48, was general manager for the San Francisco Civic Ballet Association. A lecturer and writer, his publications include To the Ballet(1935), Ballet Profile(1936), and At the Ballet(1956). He died, age 64, December 26, 1959, in New Milford, Connecticut. A collection of miscellaneous manuscripts, including short stories, essays, and lectures; holograph and typescript of an unpublished book called, variously, Appreciation of Ballet, Behind the Ballet, The Enjoyment of Ballet,and Ballet Appreciation;holograph and typescript At the Ballet(published 1956); holograph, mss., and typescript of the unfinished, unpublished Ballet Theatre: its Artistic and Private Life,written with Anton Dolin (see also (S)*MGZMB-Res. 73-824); and three typescript versions of an unpublished novel titled World of Strangers. less

The Isadora Bennett Collection covers a thirty-two year span, 1940-72. During this time, she and associates Richard Pleasant and Donald Duncan handled the public relations accounts for dance artists around the world. The bulk of the Collection was generated between 1950-65. less

Grant Hyde Code was a well-known writer and lecturer on theater and dance. A 1918 graduate of Harvard University, he, after World War I service, taught English at Harvard, Radcliff and other institutions of higher education. A former editor of Dance Observer,he was the founder and manager of the Brooklyn Museum Dance Center (1935-1938) which sponsored recitals and exhibitions. Mr. Hyde was also an actor, teacher, and public-relations person. Among his movie credits are The Miracle Workerand Serpico.He died, age 78, on June 28, 1974 in New York City. Holographs and typescripts, including letters, notes, miscellaneous documents, lectures, articles, chapters for a proposed book, and poetry. The material dates primarily from 1936-1941, when Grant Code was working as an editor at the Brooklyn Museum and attempting to organize a dance program there. Many of the letters refer to his attempts to collaborate with the Federal Theater Project of the WPA in setting up a workshop for young choreographers. less

The Hugh Laing Papers, c.1943-1988, contain almost nothing written by Laing himself, except for two brief undated notes to his mother (in her folder #10) and a letter to Isabel Brown (in her folder #12). The strength of the collection lies in the documentation of the Skinner family and Laing's birth and baptism, 18 letters from his father and mother (1956-1970), and in the outpouring of letters and notes to Laing from friends on the occasion of Antony Tudor's death in April 1987. (These letters include ones from Anne S. Palmer and Mollie Cook, relatives of Tudor). There are also examples of Laing's preliminary sketches for set and costume designs for Tudor ballets, including Gala Performance, Judgment of Parisand Pillar of Fire. less

The Helen Tamiris Collection comprises holographs, typescripts, and memorabilia, which mostly reflect Tamiris' choreographic work in the musical comedy and concert dance fields. The career of her husband, Daniel Nagrin, and the development of their company, the Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company, are also represented. less