Choreographers’ Archives: Three Case Studies in Legacy Preservation

Abstract

Case studies of current practice in dance archives, preservation, and legacy-building among established Canadian choreographers are instructive for the field. The personalities, circumstances, and creative drive of each of these choreographers influence choices in maintenance of records for their own legacies. Viewpoints from archivists and the head of a national dance collection further illuminate this investigation.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Selma Odom, Professor Emerita, Department of Dance, York University, Toronto, Canada, for her guidance in my archival research and writing and for introducing me to Stephanie Ballard, Miriam Adams, Theresa Rowat, and Michael Moir. Thanks also to Dr. Mary Jane Warner, Chair, Department of Dance, York University, Toronto, Canada, for introducing me to Rachel Browne. I deeply appreciate the warm welcome, candor, and assistance of each of the choreographers I interviewed—Allen Kaeja, Karen Kaeja, Rachel Browne, and Stephanie Ballard. I am especially grateful to Ballard for giving me tours of the archival holdings at WCD, SCD, and the Archives of Manitoba, and replying to many e-mails. Kristen Haight of WCD was very helpful in explaining her organizational system for Browne's videotapes and DVDs. I am grateful also to Miriam Adams, Theresa Rowat, and Michael Moir for their interviews. Their input was invaluable in contextualizing this research.

Notes

Danny Grossman Dance Company also initiated a documentation project for teaching or licensing ten of his dances by means of written text, DVDs, notation, and computer animation. Co-artistic director Pamela Grundy presented a detailed overview of the documentation process, “Public Inheritance: A Framework for Remembering Dance,” at York University on October 28, 2009. See also Rhonda Ryman's account, “Preservation of Danny Grossman's Curious Schools of Theatrical Dancing, Part 1,” at http://www.endangereddance.com/pres_curious.html. Dances available for licensing are listed on the website http://www.dannygrossman.com/licensing.html.

1. Dance Collection Danse, http://www.dcd.ca/ (accessed July 22, 2010).

2. See “Welcome to the Fondation Jean Pierre-Perreault,” at the website for Montreal's Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, http://www.fondation-jean-pierre-perreault.org/en/ (accessed June 27, 2010).

3. Theresa Rowat, McGill University archivist, telephone interview by the author, June 12, 2010.

4. Society for Canadian Dance Studies, http://people.uleth.ca/~scds.secd/Heritage/directorycoll.html (accessed June 28, 2010).

5. Clifford Collier and Pierre Guilmette, Dance Resources in Canadian Libraries (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, Collections Development Branch, 1982).

6. Theresa Rowat, Study of Dance Collections in Canada, unpublished report commissioned by the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, in conjunction with the Department of Canadian Heritage (Arts and Heritage Sector), for advance distribution to participants in LOGIN:DANC/SE 2000 (June 2000).

7. “A Dance Heritage Strategy for Canada—2002,” prepared by the Committee for the Preservation of Canada's Dance Heritage: Lawrence Adams, Miriam Adams, Amy Bowring, Theresa Rowat, Philip Szporer, Vincent Warren, and Leland Windreich. Unpublished report supported by the Canada Council for the Arts (April 2002) and distributed during the 2002 Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa.

8. Roy MacSkimming with Francine D’Entremont, Legacy, Transition, and Succession: Supporting the Past and Future of Canada's Arts Organizations, report for the Canada Council for the Arts (March 2005), 8.

9. Ibid., 4.

10. Endangered Dance, www.endangereddance.com (accessed June 27, 2010).

11. “Review of Recent Approaches to Growing Dance Legacy: Summary prepared by Theresa Rowat for the Canada Council for the Arts” (October 2005), 2. Available at http://www.endangereddance.com/en_growinglegacy.html (accessed June 28, 2010).

12. See http://www.endangereddance.com/themes_en.html for details on the one-, three-, and five- year goals for each of the seven themes. See also “The Choreographer's Trust: Negotiating Authority in Peggy Baker's Archival Project,” by Allana C. Lindgren and Amy Bowring, in this issue of Dance Chronicle, for another approach by a Canadian choreographer to documenting dance.

13. See the Kaeja d’Dance company website, http://www.kaeja.org/company.html, for more information. Allen Kaeja has also posted more than a dozen trailers and excerpts from his dance films on YouTube.

14. Allen Kaeja and Karen Kaeja, interview by the author, November 6, 2009.

15. Allen Kaeja, telephone interview by the author, September 15, 2010. Allen elaborated, with specific examples, on how extensively they video record their performances.

16. See http://www.endangereddance.com/grass_roots.html (accessed June 27, 2010).

17. Allen Kaeja, telephone interview, September 15, 2010.

18. Karen Kaeja, “Making Dance,” http://www.kaeja.org/company/methodology.html (accessed November 26, 2009).

19. Rachel Browne's biography is available at http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0009033 (accessed June 27, 2010).

20. Rachel Browne, interview by the author, November 16, 2009.

21. Ibid.

22. Kristin Haight, interview by the author, November 14, 2009.

23. Ibid.

24. Ballard's website, http://mts.net/~sballard/, has information about her career beyond WCD and SCD.

25. Stephanie Ballard, Final Report: Legacy Project, Phase One & Two, 1998, unpublished report located in Ballard's file at DCD.

26. Stephanie Ballard, interviews by the author, November 16 and 17, 2009.

27. Stephanie Ballard, ed., The Professional Program of Contemporary Dancers: Celebrating 25 Years of Dance (Winnipeg: School of Contemporary Dancers, 1997).

28. Stephanie Ballard, ed., A Living Legacy: The Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers, Celebrating 35 Years of Dance (Winnipeg: School of Contemporary Dancers, 2007).

29. Stephanie Ballard, ed., a body of work: Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, 40th Anniversary, 1964–2004 (Winnipeg: Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, 2004).

30. Miriam Adams, interview by the author, June 2, 2010.

31. See more about DCD's “Exhibitions” at http://www.dcd.ca/exhibitions.html.

32. Lawrence Adams, Building Your Legacy: An Archiving Handbook for Dance (Toronto: Dance Collection Danse Press/e, 2004).

33. Lawrence Adams, Amy Bowring, and Clifford Collier, Canadian Integrated Dance Database: Standards Manual and Collier Descriptor Thesaurus, trans. Marie Claire Forté (Toronto: Dance Collection Danse Press/e, 2008).

34. Rowat, telephone interview.

35. Rowat, Study of Dance Collections in Canada, 8.

36. Michael Moir, interview by the author, June 23, 2010.

37. York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, “The Benefits of a Donation to the Clara Thomas Archives,” pamphlet (2007), 2.

38. The Canadian Archival Information Network is found at archivescanada.ca, a portal maintained by the Canadian Council of Archives. Michael Moir, e-mail, September 7, 2010.