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Creator
Trisha Brown Company
Call number
*MGZMD 531
Physical description
235.75 linear feet (505 boxes, 71 tubes). 10.4 terabytes (64,525 computer files). 891 audio recordings. 4,025 moving image recordings
Language
Multiple languages; While the majority of the collection is in English, Series VIII: Publications also contains works in French, German, Portuguese, and Swedish. A small amount of clippings and promotional materials in other languages can also be found in the collection.
Preferred Citation
Trisha Brown Dance Company records, *MGZMD 531. 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.

The Trisha Brown Dance Company records presents a comprehensive account of the New York City-based company, covering its administrative practices, educational outreach, stagings, tours, promotional materials, audio and moving image recordings, and choreographic works. Additionally, there is a smaller selection of material dedicated to the life, early work, and visual art of the company's founder, the American postmodern choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown.

Biographical/historical information

The Trisha Brown Dance Company was founded in 1970 in New York City, New York and is dedicated to the performance and preservation of the works of American postmodern choreographer Trisha Brown (1936-2017). In addition to national and international performances of Brown's work, the company engages in educational and outreach efforts, such as workshops and master classes on the subject of Brown's canon. Brown served as the head of the company until her retirement in 2013. At this point, the company appointed long-standing members Diane Madden and Carolyn Lucas as co-Associate Artistic Directors. Over the years, Brown's company has included many prominent American dancers, including Eva Karczag, Wendy Perron, Stephen Petronio, Vicky Shick, and Sylvia Palacios Whitman.

Born in Aberdeen, Washington, Brown received a Bachelor's degree in dance from Mills College in 1958 and a Doctorate in Fine Arts from Bates College in 2000. For many summers Brown studied at the American Dance Festival under Louis Horst, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham.

In 1961 Brown moved to New York City in order to study composition with Robert Dunn, who taught a class at Merce Cunningham's studio. A year later, she became a founding member of the avant-garde Judson Dance Theater, a collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists who performed in Greenwich Village, New York City, until 1964.

In the late 1960s, Brown began to create her own dance pieces that utilized ropes and harnesses, giving the illusion of defying gravity. These works included Walking on the Wall (1971) and Roof Piece (1971), the latter of which was staged over a ten-block area in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. In 1970, Brown co-founded both Grand Union, an experimental dance collective, as well as her namesake company. By the late 1970s she began to produce large-scale works intended for the stage.

Brown was noted for her collaborations with visual artists and musicians, such as Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Donald Judd, Elizabeth Murray, and Robert Rauschenberg. She also worked closely with Mikhail Baryshnikov, performing with him in her piece You can see us (1995). She choreographed her last works in 2011.

In addition to her choreography, Brown produced illustrations, which were exhibited in 2008 and 2009. She was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1988 Brown was named Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the government of France. In 2002, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and in 2005 she won the Prix Benois de la Danse for lifetime achievement. In 2011, Brown won the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.

Brown had one son, Adam Brown. She married dancer Joseph Schlichter in the 1960s; he famously performed her work Man Walking Down the Side of a Building. Brown was later married to visual artist Burt Barr, with whom she occasionally collaborated. She died in San Antonio, Texas at age eighty.

Scope and arrangement

The Trisha Brown Dance Company records presents a comprehensive look at a very active postmodern dance company, as well as the life and choreography of its founder, Trisha Brown. The entire scope of the company's efforts is represented, covering their worldwide performances and educational efforts, as well as the daily administrative tasks needed for the company's operations. The company's whole lifespan is represented here, starting with its 1970 founding and ending in the early 2020s. A small amount of material in the collection pre-dates the company's founding, focusing on the early work of Brown.

A significant portion of the portion of the collection is made up of the company's organizational files. These files deal with the company's studio spaces, personnel, fundraising, finances, and touring documentation. In these materials, the daily management of the organization is significantly detailed. Brown's choreography and the ways in which her work was staged is represented throughout the collection, shown through notebooks, technical drawings, and other production materials. On that point, the collection holds a large amount of promotional materials for itself and specific productions, such as posters, press, and photographs.

A highlight of the collection is the company's audio and moving image recordings. These recordings are mainly of performances, rehearsals, or small elements of choreography, showcasing works in process. Additional recordings highlight the company's educational efforts, such as lectures and demonstrations, or interviews with Brown and other company figures. Promotional material can be found here as well, in the form of advertising and documentaries, and there are recordings made by other figures who are professionally related to the company in some way.

As the main focus of the collection is the company and not Brown herself, personal items in this collection are few, mainly limited to a small amount of correspondence and photographs. Awards given to Brown, representing her work with both her company and the larger American dance world, can be found in the collection. Brown's work as a visual artist is also well-represented, which includes reproductions of her work, appraisals, and other material dedicated to exhibition and auction.

The Trisha Brown Dance Company records are arranged in eight series:

  • Series I: Organizational Files
    1962-2019
    68.83 linear feet (164 boxes, 2 tubes). 197.6 megabytes (3525 computer files)

    Series I details the day to day operations of the company. It includes files that address the company's administrative practices, educational efforts, finances, marketing, and touring. This information was considered by the company to be their organizational files. This is the most extensive series, detailing the structure and operations of the company from its founding until 2019. The touring information consists of documentation created by and for the company for their productions and tours, although more extensive production material can be found in Series III.

    The series also covers events, such as benefits and galas, that were hosted by the company, as well as general information regarding its history and organization.

  • Series II: Trisha Brown's Administrative Files
    1940-2019
    19.08 linear feet (47 boxes). 976.5 megabytes (82 computer files)

    Series II contains the administrative records created and collected by Trisha Brown after the founding of the company, along with a small amount of her personal materials. There may be some overlap between the administrative and professional distinctions. In general, this series contains awards and honors that Brown received; her personal choreography notes; professional and personal correspondence; lectures and speech transcripts with related notes; research material collected by Brown; photographs; her appointment books and calendars; notebooks; and unsorted writing.

    The awards found here consist of honors that Brown received, as well as non-profit projects and committees that she was invited to participate in. These professional honors are represented through correspondence, programs, invitations, name tags, newsletters, photographs, honorary degrees, and notes for speeches. Also included is the doctoral hood worn by Brown while receiving an honorary degree.

    Brown's choreographic notes are her personal files relating to stagings, and are made up of correspondence, programs, technical details and diagrams, photographs and slides, notes, and invitation lists. Lectures and speeches that Brown conducted are represented through transcripts and drafts, some with handwritten notes. Also present are press releases and correspondence related to Brown's speaking engagements.

    Occasionally, the correspondence found in this series contains interleaved board and staff meeting minutes, as well as photographs, clippings, programs, and scores. Correspondence addressed directly to Brown can also be found here, as well as a small amount of personal correspondence. Of particular note are a letter of congratulations to Brown from President Ronald Reagan and a letter to her from Martha Graham.

    Brown kept files on organizations and persons, some of which she was in correspondence with and others purely for research purposes. The range of material she collected in these files is broad, including correspondence, calendars, notes and drafts, press clippings, programs, graphics, fabric samples, agreements, and meeting notes. Filed among the organizational materials are general topics that Brown was interested in, represented through collected research materials and press. Of particular note among these items are the commencement program from Brown's graduation from Mills College, a clipping from her engagement announcement to Joseph Schlichter, and the responses from a personality study that she undertook over thirty-five years.

    The photographs found in this series not only contain the photographs Brown collected during the time of the company, but also ones from her childhood and family. Found here are prints in black and white and color, photographs printed off of websites, contact information from photographers, contact sheets, negatives, and a postcard.

    Finally, this series contains a number of programs from events Brown attended, occasionally with handwritten notes and interleaved tickets.

  • Series III: Productions and Performances
    1950-2019
    103.04 linear feet (229 boxes, 23 tubes). 269.9 megabytes (2 computer files)

    Series III is dedicated to material created and collected by the company for the production and performance of Brown's work. This series details the staging and restaging of Brown's choreography over time, offering an extensive view of the majority of the company's repertory.

    Located in this series are the notebooks that document Brown's improvisation-based choreographic process, known as the "Building Notebooks," as well as all material that was utilized in the production and public performance of these works, organized by choreographic piece. This includes correspondence, technical drawings and requirements, cue sheets, license agreements and contracts, set descriptions and diagrams, photographs, scores, costume information, invoices, notes, schedules, and press. Occasionally, notes relating to moving image recordings, known as "video logs" can also be found in folders. This series also contains an extensive amount of technical drawings dedicated to the staging of repertory pieces, including lighting and masking plans for specific theaters and touring seasons.

    A comprehensive collection of the company's programs, for both domestic and international performance, can also be found here, as well as material created by company members and staff in preparation for and during company touring seasons. These tour files include correspondence, itineraries, contracts, budgets, and schedules, cue sheets, lighting paperwork, and costume information.

    Also held in this series is a small group of files dedicated to derivative works, or works related to the company but not produced by them. This includes the works of Burt Barr and co-productions that the company was involved in, including documentaries that featured the company, and proposed projects.

  • Series IV: Audio and Moving Image Recordings
    1962-2021
    0.42 linear feet (1 box). 10.3 terabytes (42,594 computer files). 891 audio recordings. 4,025 moving image recordings

    Series IV contains the collection's moving image and audio recordings, the largest subset of which is dedicated to Brown's choreography, performances, and what were called the "Building Materials." Brown and her company extensively documented her choreographic process, starting with her earliest solo work that Brown recorded herself at her studio loft in New York City. More documentation of this process can be found in Subseries III.A. Building Notebooks and Scores.

    The majority of the recordings were considered Master tapes (M) or Edited Master tapes (EM), and were given a sequential number. In addition to these, the company utilized other abbreviations to indicate the version of the recording. These include C (Copy), VC (Viewing Copy), RO (Road Box, transfers of older material), and ED (Edited). The combination of the abbreviation and number gave each recording a unique identifier.

    This concept of an unique identifier extends throughout this series, not just with the building materials, although a minority of items found here do not have identifiers. In some cases the identifier is made up of an abbreviation of the title of the work and a sequential number; these items are usually audio recordings.

    In addition to the building materials, there is a large number of recordings of rehearsals and performances present in this series, as well as accompanying music tracks. These recordings are grouped by repertory piece title or by location if the recordings contain multiple pieces.

    This series also contains interviews, as well as copies of documentaries and other filmed publicity, including advertisements. Lectures and demonstrations given by Brown and other company members can also be found here, as well as galas and benefits hosted by the company, and award ceremonies.

    Additional recordings include a large selection of excerpts from performances, material made in the service of grant applications, and the memorials of Nancy Graves and Robert Rauschenberg. Also present are works created by others, such as Burt Barr and performances by the Stephen Petronio Company, as well as unidentified material.

    After the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company performed some pieces in socially-distanced productions, most notably Roof Piece, with each dancer's part recorded on Zoom. They also used Zoom for many of their classes and workshops.

    Some items had documentation stored with the original media. This documentation has been retained, separated from its former housing, and listed here alongside the recording. In the cases of born-digital materials, any documentation is stored under the same electronic record number.

  • Series V: Photographs
    1940-2016
    9.67 linear feet (25 boxes). 91.7 gigabytes (17148 computer files)

    Series V consists of photographs collected by the company, documenting performances, events, awards ceremonies, education efforts, individuals, sets, and Brown's visual art. The company's subject arrangement has been maintained. The bulk of the photographs depict the company's repertory performances, which includes multiple stages of some performances.

    A small amount of correspondence can be found in this series, on the subject of the purchasing and usage of prints, as well as thank yous from photographers. The photographic material in this series is a mix of color and black and white prints, as well as a number of negatives, contact sheets, and slides.

  • Series VI: Press and Publicity
    1962-2018
    34.42 linear feet (46 tubes, 38 boxes). 403.6 megabytes (91 computer files)

    Series VI contains a comprehensive collection of the company's publicity material, namely posters and collected press. This series covers not only the work of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, but also Brown's prior work.

    The posters found in this series mainly come from performances and festivals, though there are also some that are generalized publicity for the company. Organized alongside these are a few posters from Trisha Brown's earlier work, namely a collaboration between her and Deborah Hay. The posters are stored rolled or flat and come from both domestic and international markets. Some posters have multiple versions, often in different sizes. Of particular note are two copies from a performance at the New York City Center, both of which are signed by Robert Rauschenberg.

    This series also contains the company's extensive press files, both international and domestic, with the latter dominating. This press not only covered the company's news, but also related topics, and came from publications both mainstream and niche. It represents a fairly complete accounting of the company's press coverage, and is much broader in scope than the files in Subseries I.F. Press Binders.

    Most of the press was organized in a chronological fashion by the company, but occasionally they collected a large amount of material on a general topic, such as select productions, press kits, and essays about Brown. A small amount of this material was unsorted and unlabeled by the company.

  • Series VII: Visual Art, Exhibitions, and Auction Records
    1973-2010
    3.33 linear feet (8 boxes). 280.6 megabytes (116 computer files)

    Series VII contains the materials created by the company for the exhibition and sale of Trisha Brown's visual artwork. This includes auction records; inventories; estimates and budgets; correspondence; invoices; promotional materials; schedules; technical specifications for exhibition; loan agreements; slides; gala and opening night invitation lists; and notes. Brown's artwork is not included.

    A history of the exhibition of Brown's work can also be found in this series. While some of these exhibitions were solely focused on Brown's work, she sometimes contributed pieces to larger exhibitions. In some cases, it is not certain that the exhibition took place.

  • Series VIII: Publications
    1976-2017
    4.33 linear feet (15 boxes)

    Series VIII contains publications collected by Trisha Brown and her company, mostly books (including photobooks) and exhibition catalogs. These publications encompass biographies of Brown, studies of modern dance, and books about artists with some connection to Brown or her work. Many of these publications are inscribed to Brown by the author, and occasionally there are letters and other documents interleaved. Publications with such annotations are noted on the item level.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Purchased from the Trisha Brown Dance Company and Adam Brown in 2019.

Processing information

Processed by Stacey Ference in 2024-2026

The collection was arranged and described by the Trisha Brown Dance Company prior to the New York Public Library's acquisition. The company's original arrangement was followed closely. Titles and series were retained whenever possible.

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