America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures Opens June 7, 2005 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Exhibition of Rare and Iconic Artifacts and Manuscripts Presented in Partnership with the Dance Heritage Coalition

New York, NY, May 19, 2005 - The innovative artists, influential institutions, and vibrant and diverse styles that have shaped and defined dance in the United States over the last 160 years are the subject of America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100, the exhibition on view at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center from June 7 through August 20, 2005. The exhibition highlights the richness and complexity of American dance, ranging from Hula and Square Dance to ballet and modern dance. To complement the exhibition, the Library offers a series of related public programs in its Bruno Walter Auditorium. Admission to the gallery and to all public programs is free. The Library is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza.

Shawn and His Dancers, 1931. Poster designed by Major Felten for Ted Shawn. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Division.

America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures draws on iconic photographs like Carl Van Vechten's studio portrait of John Bubbles as Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess, evocative costumes like Ted Shawn's feathered cape from Xochitl, and seldom-seen film footage of such performers as Irene and Vernon Castle in Whirl of Life.

The exhibition is based on the Dance Heritage Coalition's 2000 inaugural list of 100 dance treasures, culled from the full range of America's dance artists, forms and traditions, past as well as present, indigenous as well as immigrant. The Dance Heritage Coalition invited the public, dance professionals, and dance organizations to nominate treasures. From the 900 nominations submitted, committees consisting of experts from across the country made the final selections. The criteria for a treasure were that it: (1) made a significant impact on dance as an art form: (2) demonstrated artistic excellence; (3) enriched the nation's cultural heritage; (4) demonstrated the potential to enhance the lives of future generations; and (5) showed itself worthy of national and international recognition. Materials for the traveling exhibition come from the collections of the Coalition's nine constituents.

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division, one of the five divisions of the Library for the Performing Arts, has itself been selected as one of the 100 treasures and has contributed a wide range of materials to the exhibition. For the New York presentation, the Library will augment the exhibition with prized materials from its collections, including autographed pointe shoes in which Alexandra Danilova performed, a photograph of Isadora Duncan at the Parthenon by Edward Steichen, Oliver Smith's set design for Rodeo, and Jerome Robbins' well-traveled wardrobe trunk from the late 1940s/early 1950s. In addition, there are two playback stations featuring videos, films, and audiotapes selected from the oral histories produced by the Dance Division.

"Not only are all 100 treasures represented in the exhibition, but the Library for the Performing Arts is proud to point out that examples of all the treasures are represented in the Dance Division's holdings. We are thankful to the many people on the list who have donated their personal collections to the Library. Early archival gifts came from Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey, and Lincoln Kirstein to which the Merce Cunningham, Rudolf Nureyev, Jerome Robbins, and Gregory Hines Collections have recently been added," noted Jacqueline Z. Davis, The Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Ruth St. Denis in her solo Tagore Poem, 1929. Photo by Soichi Sunami. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Division.

The exhibition tells the story of dance in America. Native American social and ceremonial dance traditions are represented by Kachinas, depicting masked and costumed participants. Magazine pages of the Lindy Hop craze and photographs of people kicking up their heels in the Charleston illustrate the social dances that continue to enliven the American dance floor. The growth and concerns of American ballet are explored through such items as Lincoln Kirstein's diary describing the young George Balanchine's 1933 emigration to the United States; Agnes de Mille's boots from her cowboy ballet Rodeo ; Jerome Robbins' contract with American Ballet Theatre for Fancy Free, his ballet of three sailors and their girls on the town in New York; Antony Tudor's notes for a restaging of Dark Elegies; and the first ballet to make the cover of Time Magazine, Robert Joffrey's multi-media Astarte. The story of modern dance is developed and its lineage viewed through such materials as a photograph of Ruth St. Denis in her dance A Tagore Poem, a film of Martha Graham in Lamentation, and a photograph of Mark Morris in Striptease.  

An interview with Sugar Sullivan about swing dance at the Savoy Ballroom and photos of American Bandstand and Judson Dance Theater evoke memories of the remarkable dance fests at these venues. The artists on the list, beginning with Alvin Ailey and Fred Astaire, Balasaraswati and Busby Berkeley, and ending with Edward Villella and Charles Weidman, have either carried on traditions or challenged and extended them. The section on tap dance greats, from the 19th century's Master Juba to today's Savion Glover, shows the variety of styles within the genre.

An interactive station provides information on all the treasures. It allows visitors to access individual clips, click on links to other treasures, call up more detailed histories and biographies, and locate archival and on-line resources about individual treasures. Searches can be made by name, dance genre, and professional occupation.

The traveling exhibition is curated by dance historian and author Lynn Garafola and Jacob's Pillow's Director of Preservation Norton Owen; the section of the exhibition added specifically for New York by the Library for the Performing Arts is curated by Monica Moseley. America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures is designed to capture not only the depth and range of American dance, but also the variety of materials used to document this most ephemeral of the performing arts, and the commitment to preserving America's dance history for future generations.

America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100 will be on view June 7 through August 20, 2005 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Vincent Astor Gallery, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (or through the Lincoln Center Plaza entrance), New York. Exhibition hours are Thursday from 12 noon to 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 12 noon to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays.  Admission is free. For exhibition information, telephone 212.870.1630 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org.

Free Series of Public Programs on Dance Treasures
Complementing the exhibition of dance treasures is a free series of public programs on the dance treasures held at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center. Programs will take place in the Bruno Walter Auditorium. Seats are available one-half hour before the start of the program on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information, telephone 212. 642.0142, e-mail lpaprog@nypl.org, or visit the library's website.

The Art of Agnes de Mille
Thursday, June 2, 6:00 p.m.
Theodore S. Chapin, Gemze de Lappe, Jerry Mitchell, Jonathan Prude, and others discuss the legacy of Ms. de Mille, in her centennial year. She is renowned as the choreographer of such ballets as Rodeo and Fall River Legend and such musical comedies as Oklahoma, Carousel, and Brigadoon. The Agnes de Mille Papers are housed in the Library's Dance Division.

America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100
Tuesday, June 7, 3:00 p.m.
Conversation with exhibition curators Lynn Garafola and Norton Owen.

"Dancemaker"
Thursday, August 18, 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 20, 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Screenings of an award-winning documentary about noted American choreographer Paul Taylor, a dance treasure.  

About the The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs.

About the Jerome Robbins Dance Division
The Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division is the largest and most comprehensive archive in the world devoted to the documentation of dance. Chronicling the art of dance in all its manifestations - ballet, ethnic, modern, social, and folk - the division is much more than a library in the usual sense of the word. It is part museum, part film production center, and part consulting service to the professional dance community. It preserves the history of dance by gathering diverse written, visual, and aural resources, and it works to ensure the art form's continuity through an active documentation program. The Dance Division collects in all media. While the division contains more than 42,000 reference books about dance, these account for only 3 percent of its vast holdings. Other resources available for study include: films and videotapes, audiotapes, clipping and program files, iconography, and manuscripts and memorabilia. Productions are preserved and critical gaps in the historical record are addressed through the Jerome Robbins Archive of the Recorded Moving Image and the Oral History program. Materials are available for study without appointment.  They are described in the on-line catalog at www.nypl.org/research/lpa. Dance on Disk, an enhanced CO-ROM version of the catalog is available at major universities and colleges. E-mail information reference service is provided at dance@nypl.org.

About the Dance Heritage Coalition
The Dance Heritage Coalition, established in 1992 to address problems and coordinate efforts in preservation and documentation of American dance, is a membership organization of nine constituents: the American Dance Festival; Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution; Dance Notation Bureau, Inc.; Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival; Library of Congress; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division; Ohio State University, Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute; and San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation.

The Dance Heritage Coalition wishes to thanks all those who have helped make the exhibition possible. In particular, it gratefully acknowledges the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance Foundation, Inc.

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