Popular Balanchine dossiers, 1929-2004 (bulk dates 1929-1954)

Links

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• View finding aid

Creator

George Balanchine Foundation.

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division

Extent

• 42 boxes.

Scope/Contents Note

The materials collected for the Popular Balanchine projectinclude essays written on individual works and summary essays on the project (see "Overview of the project") or collected titles in a particular medium (see "Hollywood films"). Included also are correspondence, print materialssuch as playbills, souvenir programs, reviews, articles, and book excerpts; graphic materials such as photographs, drawings, set designs and costume sketches; and other materials such as music (both published and unpublished, some annotated), production notes, prompt books, scripts, and scenarios. Almost evey title includes oral history interview transcripts and some include typescripts of published or archival materials, interview summaries, sources of original materials, and compilations of noticesand reviews. Most of the materials are collected in binders while some dossiers include additional oversize materials. The first item in each binder is an inventory of the dossier's contents. The bulk of the materials are reproductions (photocopies or digital scans) but the collection does include original artifacts such as playbills, souvenir programs, photographs, music, print excerpts, and some correspondence.

Biographical/Historical Note

Popular Balanchine was designed to document the works choreographed by George Balanchine for the popular stage and the movie screen. From 1927-1931, Balanchine staged dances and musical numbers for reviews, variety shows, andoperettas in London and Paris as well as creating choreography for Dark red roses, among the first feature-length talking motion pictures made in England. In the United States, from 1936-1954, he worked with Vernon Duke,John Murray Anderson, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, GeorgeAbbott, George Gershwin, Joshua Logan, Frederick Loewe, Irving Berlin, John Latouche, Felix Brentano, Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Loesser, and Harold Arlen - leading figures of American musical theater - to create two reviews, fifteen musical comedies, four operettas, and five Hollywood films. He also collaborated with Igor Stravinsky on the famous Ballet of the elephants for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. To preserve what is possible of this heritage, the George Balanchine Foundation undertook a major research initiative in 1999 focusing on Balanchine's popular entertainment works. Nancy Reynolds, director of research for the Foundation, originated the project and engaged Claude Conyers as project director. The mandate given him was to establish and supervise a team of dance and theater historians to research, assemble, and organize a collection of primary source materials on the subject. The results of this effort, conducted over a period of three years, constitutea unique collection of documents, printed materials, photographs, memorabilia, audio and video recordings, and transcripts of interviews with participants who were a part of a major period in the history of American musical theater.

Controlled Access Terms

• Balanchine, George.
• Choreographers -- United States.
• Theatrical productions -- New York (State) -- New York -- 20th century.
• Correspondence.
• Clippings.
• Photographs.
• Choreographers.

Additional Creator Names

• Conyers, Claude.
• Chazin-Bennahum, Judith.
• Newman, Barbara, 1944-
• Genné, Beth.
• Garafola, Lynn.
• Hill, Constance Valis.
• Hardy, Camille.
• Palfy, Barbara.
• Hunt, Marilyn, 1937-
• Mattingly, Kate.
• Horwitz, Dawn Lille.
• Dorris, George E.
• Caines, Christopher.
• Fullington, Doug.
• Ross, Janice.
• Aldrich, Elizabeth.
• Sommer, Sally R.
• DeFrantz, Thomas.
• Banes, Sally.