Scope and arrangement
The Elaine Summers papers date from 1929 to 2019, and elucidate her career as a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and founder of the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company, The Experimental Intermedia Foundation (EIF), and the Kinetic Awareness Center (KAC). The collection primarily focuses on Summers's career after the founding of the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company in 1968, with particular focus on the company's activities between the 1970s and the 1980s; the history and administrative undertakings of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation (EIF); and Summers's deep involvement as a practitioner and teacher of Kinetic Awareness (KA). Many of her intermedia works are thoroughly documented in the collection, including Crow's Nest, Energy Changes, Illuminated Workingman, Theater Piece for Chairs and Ladders, Invitation to Secret Dancers, Flowing Rock/Still Waters, Solitary Geography, and SkyDance/SkyTime/SkyWeb (henceforth shortened to SkyDance).
The collection consists primarily of correspondence; dance scores; EIF files; KAC files; notes and notebooks; photographs; film, video, and sound recordings; subject files; and website files. Also present are a few files relating to the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company, which generally hold administrative documents, project descriptions and notes, budgets, and other financial or business materials. Additionally, the collection includes posters, scrapbooks, clippings, programs, and publicity materials.
Correspondence is arranged chronologically, and is both personal and professional in nature. The majority of the correspondence consists of professional letters regarding EIF, KAC, and various performances. Many of the letters are outgoing appeals for funds or contain information about the projects of EIF and of the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company. A significant quantity of email correspondence is present. Correspondents include friends, colleagues, and members of the board of the Kinetic Awareness Center, such as Mimi Cherney, Pearl Bowser, Barbara Leverone, Marguerite Thomas, Paula Court, Amy Guggenheim, George Ashley, Leeny Sack, Charles Allcroft, Patti Bradshaw, Thomas Houser, and Dorothy Friedman. "Letters of delight" consist of incoming, personal letters sent to Summers that she filed separately.
Dance scores include choreographic notations, diagrams, and conceptual descriptions of many of Summers's works including Crow's Nest, Dressing and Undressing, Invitation to Secret Dancers, and Walking Dance for Any #.
The Experimental Intermedia Foundation files document the administrative and programming activities of the foundation and contain foundation descriptions, letters, notes, board of directors meeting minutes, newsletters, resumes, financial documents, and grant files. Grant and fundraising files document the foundation's efforts to secure funds through several entities, including the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Many of the grant applications contain detailed descriptions of projects taken on by the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company.
The Kinetic Awareness Center files document the development and programming of the Center from its inception in 1983 until Summers' death in 2014. Materials consist of articles on movement, kinetics, and anatomy; publicity documents; memoranda and meeting notes; and information regarding the Center's Teacher Training Program. Documents pertaining to the Center's finances and board of directors are also present.
Notebooks chiefly contain teaching notes from KAC or other ideas concerning somatic studies. Many of the notebooks are incomplete, and contain a combination of the teaching notes, contact lists, to-do lists, meeting notes, stream of consciousness entries, and recipes. Some of the notebooks present KA students' physical symptoms and describe the movement exercises used, including bodywork and ball work. A small quantity of autobiographical essays is also included. Summers frequently wrote meeting notes or personal reflections in her appointment books in addition to daily plans.
Photographs date from the 1920s to 2013. The majority of this section is arranged alphabetically by dance performance title or topic, preceded by a few chronologically arranged files. They include performance and rehearsal images; promotional images; portraits of Summers throughout her life; family snapshots; images used for reference, inspiration, and as backdrops within performances. Energy Changes is particularly well-documented through the photographs, with images from various performances dating between 1973 and 1982. Dancers depicted in the photographs include Summers, Rudy Perez, Phoebe Neville, Tedrian Chizik, Edward Barton, Robert Kushner, Tony Nunziata, Alexandra Ogsbury, and Roberta Escamilla Garrison. Other artists and musicians photographed include Philip Corner, Carman Moore, and Pauline Oliveros; and photographs of other works, such as the filming of Huey's Grace, A Portrait of Grace DeCarlton Ross and the rehearsal of Sounds Out of Silent Spaces at the Experimental Intermedia Foundation. Slides files hold research material, which Summers sometimes referred to as movement studies, or "found dancers," primarily for her Illuminated Workingman. These images depict construction workers, police officers, firefighters, construction sites, scaffolding, and street images from different angles. Other slides depict athletes in motion that Summers used as studies for Kinetic Athletic Frenzy and abstract patterns that Summers altered using different methods of painting or etching.
Programs and publicity materials document Summers's performances from 1964 to the 2010s. Articles and announcements primarily relate to performances put on by the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company. A few published periodicals and journals containing articles about Summers's work are also present.
Recordings include film, video, and sound recordings. The film and video recordings are performance footage and Summers's experimental film work, with a much smaller quantity of rehearsal footage and home movies. Sound recordings include music featured in performances and interviews with Summers. While the recordings themselves are not currently available pending digitization, one box (box 60) of separated material, including editing notes and tracklists pertaining to them is accessible to researchers.
The subject files were prepared by Summers over the course of her career. They are arranged alphabetically by subject, person, or work, and contain a wide range of document types, including articles, press materials, notes, project descriptions, and letters. Among the more robust files are those for specific intermedia and choreographic works, such as Hidden Forest, Illuminated Workingman, and Crow's Nest. These files typically contain choreographic descriptions, performance information, notes, articles, sketches, and press releases. Multiple files document the different aspects of SkyDance, such as advertising, performance planning, fundraising, and meetings regarding the short- and long-term goals of the project. Researchers should note that the subject files were retained as Summers accumulated and kept them, and that several of the subjects documented therein are likely further represented in other areas of the collection, particularly the administrative and programming endeavors of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation and the Kinetic Awareness Center. For a complete survey of these topics, researchers should refer to the correspondence, dance scores, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, and Kinetic Awareness Center files.
Website files contain graphic elements and other web content featured on her website as well as website visit traffic statistics. Elaine Summers arrived relatively early to the internet, setting up home pages for EIF, KAC, and the Elaine Summers Dance and Film Company around 1997.
Writings and biographies chiefly contain essays, blurbs, and notes created by Summers. Interview transcripts, resumes, and biographical sketches are also present, as well as drafts and a final version of her thesis: Choreography and Filmdance.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged alphabetically.