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Creator
Terborgh, Bert
Call number
(S)*MGZMD 314
Physical description
.42 linear feet (1 box)
Preferred Citation

Bert Terborgh papers, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Bert Terborgh (1945-1996) was a Dutch ballet and modern dancer who performed throughout Europe and Australia and with the Martha Graham Dance Company. The Bert Terborgh papers consist primarily of photographs, performance programs, and promotional material, with some other items documenting Terborgh's career, including librettos, salary records, and correspondence from dance institutes.

Biographical/historical information

Bert Terborgh (1945-1996) was a Dutch ballet and modern dancer who performed throughout Europe and Australia before joining the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1976. Born Bartholomeus Maria Cornelius Zwetsloot, Terborgh studied ballet and jazz dance at the Kennemer Ballet School in Haarlem, the Netherlands, from 1966 to 1968. During the late-1960s and 1970s, he trained and performed with a variety of companies, including the Netherlands Dance Theatre, Holland's Scapino Ballet, the Australian Dance Theater, the Rotterdam Dance Center, and the Bat Dor Dance Company of Israel. Over the course of his career, he worked with a number of noted choreographers, including Alvin Ailey, Paul Sanasardo, Pearl Lang, Mary Anthony, and Peter Sparling.

After studying the Martha Graham Technique with Yuriko Kikuchi and Mary Hinkson, he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1976, where he danced in performances of Diversion of Angels, Appalachian Spring, Night Journey, Owl and the Pussycat, and Clytemnestra (which was filmed for the PBS series Great Performances in 1979). In 1982, he became a rehearsal director and teacher with the Martha Graham Company, teaching master classes at companies and schools throughout Europe and the United States. Additionally, while living in New York City, he served as a faculty member at the State University of New York at Purchase's dance conservatory and a rehearsal director for the Purchase Dance Corps. Terborgh died of AIDS on June 21, 1996, in Manhattan.

Scope and arrangement

This collection consists primarily of photographs, performance programs, and promotional material documenting Terborgh's dance career. His work with the Australian Dance Theatre, the Rotterdam Dance Center, and Martha Graham Dance Company is best represented, though other companies, including the Scapino Ballet, Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, Pearl Lang Dance Company, and Paul Sanasardo Dance Company are also documented. There are no items relating to his time at SUNY Purchase. The collection includes two librettos for performances with the Martha Graham Dance Company: "American Document" and "Song," the latter of which is lightly annotated with rehearsal notes, as well as a scrapbook of Martha Graham memorabilia containing photographs, programs, and newspaper clippings of reviews. Also present are other professional documents, including a résumé (circa 1977), salary records from the Rotterdam Dance Center, and letters from Antwerp's Stedelijk Instituut Voor Ballet about their International Dance program and from Barcelona's Institut del Teatre regarding an open position for a dance instructor.

The collection is organized according to dance company. The "General" folders contain photographs, programs, promotional material, and correspondence from various companies that do not have their own folder; photographs of an unknown origin; and items, such as Terborgh's résumé, that do not relate to a specific company.

Arrangement

Files are arranged alphabetically by dance company.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Jeanne Ruddy, 2007.

Processing information

Loose items were foldered and the collection was rehoused. The collection's original order was maintained.

Compiled by Allison Hughes, Palmer School of Library and Information Science, September 2013.

Using the collection

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.