Scope and arrangement
The Milton Oleaga collection contains Oleaga's commissioned works, including negatives, contact sheets, prints, and ephemera from dance and theatre productions in the New York metropolitan area from the 1960s through the late 1970s. His pictures include modern dance, ballet, on and Off-Broadway plays, musicals, and more. As the photographs were professionally commissioned, Oleaga was often close to the stage and clearly captured the dancers or cast, costumes, and set decor.
Photographs and negatives depict dance and theatre around New York City from the 1960s through 1981. Including performances by major dance companies of the time, the American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, José Limón Dance Company, and more. In addition, there is extensive documentation of dance classes at the New York City-based Jazz studio, Luigi's from the 1970s through the 1980s.
Several of the theater productions Oleaga photographed went on to close shortly after their opening performances.
The collection consists of several black and white prints, some of which have been mounted back-to-back. Oleaga often created spiral-bound books of his photographs, in which pictures are mounted back-to-back to create each side of the book's pages. The collection contains sixteen finished spiral-bound books of the dancers Kim Duddy, Trace Galvin, and Suzanne Howe, and many of the prints have already been mounted in this manner.
Arrangement
Performances have been arranged chronologically. However, most dance rehearsals and performances take place from the 1960s through the 1970s and are arranged alphabetically within that date range.