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Creator
Weidman, Charles
Call number
(S) *MGZMD 99
Physical description
6.5 linear feet (13 boxes)
Preferred Citation

The Charles Weidman Papers, (S)*MGZMD 99, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

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

Charles Weidman was one of the founding members of Modern Dance in the United States. In his later years, he created his own dance company, continuing to teach and tour in the early 1970s.

Biographical/historical information

Charles Edward Weidman Jr. was born in 1904 in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1920 he left for Los Angeles to study at the Denishawn School. His first teacher there was Doris Humphrey.

During eight years as a soloist in the Denishawn company, Charles Weidman toured the United States, England and the Orient.

In 1929 he and Doris Humphrey established their own school and the Humphrey-Weidman Concert Company. Theirs was the first modern dance group to give a New York Concert. In 1948 due to Doris Humphrey's retirement as a dancer he formed his own company, Charles Weidman Dance Theatre. In his performances he combined dance, mime, narration and, later when the artist Mikhail Santaro joined him in the 1960s, lecture-demonstrations of drawings.

In addition to his concert work, tours and teaching in the 1940s, Charles Weidman choreographed several Broadway shows . For three years (1963-66) he was also a choreographer for the New York City Center Opera Company where he contributed to many of the company's successes. (See Love for Three Oranges file of this collection).

Charles Weidman conducted workshops on over two hundred college campuses and as many high schools. He was been on the faculty at Bennington College, Mills College, Temple University, Columbia University, New York University, The New School for Social Research, and Connecticut College in New London. He was appointed a Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College and awarded Jersey City State College Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

For about fifteen years Charles Weidman had a studio in New York that was the home for his company Expression of Two Arts Theatre, and where he taught, choreographed and performed together with his small company up to the very day of his death on July 15, 1975.

Scope and arrangement

The papers of Charles Edward Weidman Jr., 1904-1975 cover the period ca. 1908-1975 and pertain mainly to his professional life and career through the late 1950s up to his death in 1975. Very few letters and photographs are related to his early career.

The papers of Mikhail Santaro included with the original gift were separated from Charles Weidman's papers and processed as a separate manuscript collection.

Some material is fragile and requires special handling.

The collection does not contain much personal material and nothing from his time with Denishawn or the early years of Humphrey/Weidman. The correspondence is mostly business related and is from the 1960s-1970s.

The Charles Weidman papers are arranged in four series:

  • Series I: Correspondence and Business Records
    1934, 1958 - 1975
    4 boxes

    This series consists of correspondence and business records including the Charles Weidman Theatre Dance Company. Some organizations and individuals have correspondence in two places. The items were left where they were found, and cross references were added. Within the s, items are mostly in chronological order with the exception of undated items.

  • Series II: Personal Documents
    1955 - 1974
    2 boxes

    This series contains biographical material; family correspondence, legal and financial papers; social security and Medicare benefits correspondence. Also included are lectures given by Weidman. Awards and honorary degrees received by Weidman, general office records, including bank statements, receipts, mailing list, monthly planners and a sketchbook are also contained within the series.

  • Series III: Choreographed works/notes/music scores
    1921 - 1975
    6 boxes

    This series contains Charles Weidman's choreographed works, choreographic notes, some diagrams and drawings, and music scores (with notes) by various composers.

  • Series IV: Oversized Material, ca.
    1970, undated
    1 box

    This series contains oversized artwork, musical scores and posters.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The Charles Weidman Papers were donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in 1992.

Processing information

Processed by Irina Klyagin and Wilson Processing Staff; Machine-readable finding aid created by Irina Klyagin and Wilson Processing Staff.

Key terms

Names

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