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Weidman, Charles.
The Charles Weidman papers is an intentionally assembled collection that pertains mainly to his professional life and career through the late 1950s up to his death in 1975.It contains mainly correspondence, business and financial records, as well as some posters. Several of Weidman's choreographic works, including And daddy was a fireman, Atavisms, Christmas oratorio, Fables for our time, and Is sex necessary? or Why you feel the way you do, are documented to varying degrees through materials that may include choreographic notes, annotated music scores, diagrams, and drawings. The collection does not contain much personal material and nothing from his time with Denishawn or the early years of Humphrey/Weidman. Correspondence is mostly business related and is from the 1960s-1970s. Very little of the material in the collectionis related to Weidman's early career, but there is significant documentation of the Charles Weidman Dance Theatre, and its successor, Expression of Two Arts. Some material is fragile and requires special handling. The papers of Mikhail Santaro included with the original gift were separated from Charles Weidman's papers and processedas a separate manuscript collection.
American dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Charles Edward Weidman (1904-1975) was a pioneering figure in the development of modern dance. He trained at the DenishawnSchool, where Doris Humphrey was his first teacher. Duringeight years as a soloist in the Denishawn company, Weidmantoured extensively. In 1929, he and Humphrey established their own school and the Humphrey-Weidman Concert Company.Following Humphrey's retirement as a dancer in 1948, Weidman 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 that included drawing. In addition to his concert work, tours, and teaching, Weidman choreographed for Broadway and the New York City Opera Company. As a teacher, Weidman conducted numerous workshops and served on the faculty of several universities. For about fifteen years before the time of his death, he maintained a studio in New York, where he taught and which served as the home for his smallcompany, Expression of Two Arts Theatre.
Wisconsin Pond Life ... (Detroit Publishing Company postcards). NYPL Photography Collection.
One of 700,000 pictures in the NYPL Digital Gallery
