Studying Dance
Please find below a preliminary, but incomplete list of resources to help a dance scholar, maker, and practitioner at any level.
Performances, Archives, and Friends
NYPL Jerome Robbins Dance Division
The Jerome Robbins Dance Division is the world’s largest dance archive and library with an international and extensive collection that spans seven centuries.
Library of Congress
Most archival material related to dance is available from the Music Division in the Performing Arts Reading Room. However, many valuable dance resources are also available throughout the Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Division, Manuscript Division, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, American Folklife Center, and in the general collections.
Newberry Library
Throughout its history, the Newberry has collected a variety of materials relating to the performing arts, including dance treatises, theater programs, broadsides, as well as the papers of dancers, journalists, and performing arts critics. With the guidance of Chicago dance documenter, collector, and journalist Ann Barzel, the Newberry has become a significant center for the study of dance history in Chicago and the Midwestern region. Barzel’s own massive dance collection forms the nucleus of the library’s Midwest Dance Collection. Performing arts may be studied within the context of the library’s broad and deep special collections, focused on the history and culture of Europe and the Americas (including indigenous peoples) from the era of discovery. For Music research and resources, see the Music Research Guide.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive
An ever-growing collection of dance videos filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today, plus multimedia essays and a related podcast.
Chicago Dance History Project
Preserving, with a sense of urgency, histories of the Chicago dance community.
See Chicago Dance
Slippage Lab
SLIPPAGE is a think-tank, an interdisciplinary performance research group that explores connections between performance, history, theater, and emergent technology. Under the direction of professor Thomas F. DeFrantz, SLIPPAGE builds on the urgent need for intentional, critical, and timely interaction among artists, researchers, audiences, engineers, faculty, students, and general publics in the arts. Located on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University, SLIPPAGE has a special imperative to organize cultural events that help us all imagine how creativity and expression operate at the core of artistry, humanity, technology, and social possibilities. SLIPPAGE produces conferences, symposia, workshops, and artist exchanges in events that mark social progress via research in performance. Recognized globally, SLIPPAGE remains at the forefront of innovative thinking.
Chicago Dance Studies Working Group
Launched in Fall 2022, The Chicago Dance Studies Working Group meets to engage new publications in Dance Studies. The goal is to have rich embodied conversations that builds community among the breadth of people involved in dance in Chicago. All bodies, minds, and experience levels welcome.
