Scope and arrangement
This collection documents Shirlee Dodge's relationship with her former instructor, Mary Wigman, and contains materials collected to illustrate Wigman's dance and teaching career. The Shirlee Dodge collection of Mary Wigman materials contains personal correspondence with Mary Wigman, Harald Kreutzberg, and Margaret (Marge) H'Doubler, as well as letters recommending Dodge as an instructor, photographs, and scrapbooks.
The majority of the photographs concern Wigman's professional career: choreographic stills from Lament, Dance in the Stillness, Rites of Spring, Prophetess, and Orpheus; dance instruction with students; and headshots. The collection also contains personal photographs of Wigman, including photographs of her with Shirlee Dodge and others, childhood, and candid photographs. Photographs not picturing Wigman include images of Harald Kreutzberg, Dodge, and unidentified individuals.
Two scrapbooks containing photographs, press clippings, programs, class notes, and drawings are also included in the collection. Both scrapbooks concern Dodge's studies with Wigman in Germany, as well as document aspects of Wigman's career. Individuals identified in the scrapbook photographs include Catherine Austin, Jean Houloose, Gisela Sonntag, Ellen Lundström, Gundel Eplinius, Walter Reck, Kurt Paudler, Lisa Schjerbeck, Birgit Gjessing LaMothe, Dore Hoyer, and Harald Kreutzberg.
The collection also holds conference materials relating to the study and appreciation of Wigman's work, press clippings, brochures and programs concerning the Wigman Schools, printed materials regarding Wigman, and miscellaneous materials in German.
Additional archival collections, books, interviews, and video recordings concerning both Dodge and Wigman can be found by conducting separate subject and author searches for "Dodge, Shirlee" and "Wigman, Mary" in the catalog (www.nypl.org/catalog).
Arrangement
Alphabetical by subject.