Maureen Needham-Aldrich papers

1946-2003

The Maureen Needham-Aldrich papers date from 1946 to 2003 and document her career as a dancer and dance historian through research files and dance and education files. Research files reflect her scholarly concentrations from her study of dance therapy in the 1970s, to her more specific historical analyses in the 1980s and 1990s, including the dissemination of French ballet to the Americas, and the dance traditions of the Pueblo people in New Mexico. Dance and education files concern her early career as a ballet dancer and as a student at Radcliffe College.

Research files comprise the bulk of the collection. They date from 1946 to 2003 and document Aldrich's research and writing processes for articles, book reviews, encyclopedia and dictionary entries, speeches, and research guides. The files are arranged by subject or publication title and contain annotated articles, research notes, bibliographies, correspondence, photographs, and drafts of her work. Correspondence generally relates to the revision and publication of her articles and books. Correspondents consist of the editors of journals, magazines, and newspapers, such as Ballet Review, American Music, Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, and the Nashville Scene. Subjects represented in the files include dance therapy, Native American ritual, traditional Pueblo dances, the global dissemination of French ballet, 19th century American ballet, dances of the Caribbean, and dancers, including Augusta Maywood, Royes Fernandez, Fanny Elssler, and Isadora Duncan.

Aldrich's study of dance therapy from 1960 to 1978 is documented through articles, notes, bibliographies, and other research materials. Articles consist of those written by Aldrich, as well as articles she used for her research, including works by and about dance therapist Marian Chase. Titles of Aldrich's articles here include "Therapeutic Dance with Visually Handicapped Children," "Expanding Stereotyped Object Manipulation into Expressive Dance," and "Measuring Synchronous Movement in Dance Therapy Sessions." A limited amount of Aldrich's choreographic and dance exercise notes are present. Material relating to the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) consists of conference pamphlets and drafts of a speech she gave at the 1974 ADTA Midwestern Regional Conference.

Aldrich's research on dancer Fanny Elssler is extensive and examines Elssler's success in the United States and her performances in Havana, Cuba during the 1840s. Files for her research on Native American rituals and Pueblo dance traditions contain copies of journal articles from the 1890s to the 1940s, notes, and photographs of Pueblo dances she took during a research trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1990. Material relating to her book, I See America Dancing: Selected Readings, 1685-2000, consists of permission requests for images, illustration lists, photograph reproduction agreements, notes, and printing invoices. August Maywood files hold articles, notes, drafts, correspondence, and the final version of her article "'The Wild Doe': Augusta Maywood in Philadelphia and Paris, 1837-1840" (Dance Chronicle, 1994). Correspondence with Dance Chronicle editor George Dorris concerns Aldrich's revision process.

Many of Aldrich's encyclopedia and dictionary entries are present. Drafts, final versions, annotated journal articles, and correspondence are included for biographies in The International Dictionary of Ballet, the International Encyclopedia of Dance, and the American National Biography. Correspondence with Stanley Sadie, editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, details Aldrich's research, articles, entry suggestions, and proposed guidelines for dancers' biographies. Entries that Aldrich wrote for the American National Biography are accompanied by contracts, subject questionnaires, and guidelines and information on manuscript entries.

Dance and education files document Aldrich's activities as a dancer and student between 1955 and 1968 through essays, notes, lecture outlines, resumes, performance reviews, programs, and articles. A file for An American in Paris holds synopses, ballet verse drafts, notes, clippings, costume sketches, and a program for the Crescent City Concerts Association 1955 production of the ballet. Aldrich performed in the production and her father, Maurice D'Arlan-Needham, wrote the book. Articles, programs, resumes, and performance lists document her early dance career, up to the age of twenty. Essays, lecture notes, and annotated reading assignments from her studies at Radcliffe College are present, including her thesis, Yeats's Use of Dance as an Image and Agent of Perfection's Climax (1960).

The collection contains one compact disc consisting of a scanned professional headshot of Aldrich from 2001.