Here are some of the blogs I wrote as Curator Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts https://www.nypl.org/blog/author/324
On September 25, 2015, I retired as Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Through more than twenty-five years, the various positions I held at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division gave me the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to use all my energy, resources, skills and talents. What a pleasure to have had the good fortune to find work that required and allowed me to be creative and committed. I had the pleasure of working with some of the greatest choreographers, dancers, writers, and artists, as well as with their history, to organize and preserve their records and videos and make them available to the public, including, where they had the rights, to put them online. I cannot begin to say the things I’m most proud of.
Some that stand out that are available online for anyone in the world to see are:
Khmer Dance Project (KDP) Funded by a grant from the Anne Hendricks Bass Foundation, the KDP began in 2008 when the Center for Khmer Studies partnered with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division to interview and film the three generations of artists – including dancers, musicians and singers, as well as embroiderers and dressers – who kept dance alive during and in the wake of the Khmer Rouge regime. The New York Public Library offers streaming video of all these recordings free of charge through its Digital Collections at digitalcollections.nypl.org/dancevideo. There one can click on the Khmer Dance Project, listed as a featured collection.
Core of Culture’s Bhutan Dance Project. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division partnered with Core of Culture’s project to record and preserve disappearing dance traditions from the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. During the course of three years, Core of Culture recorded more than 300 separate dances creating 500 hours of video. Also available online at Bhutan Dance Project
African Dance Interview Project Fourteen videos from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation funded project to record African dancers and choreographers working and teaching in New York are also available through either the research catalog or Digital Collections or click on the call numbers below for the individual interviews.
- Interview with Djoniba Mouflet, conducted by Kewulay Kamara on April 24, 2015 *MGZIDF 4119
- Interview with Nadia Dieudonne, conducted by Carolyn Webb on May 16, 2015, *MGZIDF 4120
- *MGZIDF 4121 Interview with Danys “La Mora” Perez, conducted by C. Daniel Dawson on June 27, 2015
- Interview with Vado Diamonde , conducted by Maguette Camara on August 9, 2015, *MGZIDF 6171
- Interview with Edward (Ajaibo) Walrond, conducted by Carolyn Webb on August 9, 2015, *MGZIDF 6172
- Interview with Sidiki Conde, conducted by by Deborah Ross on September 5, 2015, *MGZIDF 6199
- Interview with Yvette Martinez, conducted by Carolyn Webb on September 12, 2015, *MGZIDF 6202
- Maguette Camara interviewed by Ife Felix August 6, 2014, (*MGZIDF 4093)
- Marie Basse Wiles interviewed by Carolyn Webb August 26, 2014, (*MGZIDF 4094)
- Mouminatou Camara interviewed by Malaika Adero August 27, 2014, (*MGZIDF 4095)
- Youssouf Koumbassa interviewed by Dionne Kamara August 28, 2014, (*MGZIDF 4096)
- N’Deye Gueye interviewed by Malaika Adero September 18, 2014, (*MGZIDF 4097)
- Lamine Thiam interviewed by Carolyn Webb, May 23, 2013, *MGZIDF 1336
There were so many collections donated in those years, I cannot name them all. However, as a tiny overview, we received collections from Mikhail Baryshnikov, Meredith Monk, Ronald K. Brown, Sun Ock Lee, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dance Theater Workshop, (now New York Live Arts), early New York City Ballet video records, Works & Process at the Guggenheim and many many others.
But beyond all these good things at the Library, I was truly blessed with amazing people to work with. There is an enormous amount of talent, knowledge, and generosity of spirit in the staff at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. They have the heart and awareness to be able to serve the needs of the materials, the Library, and the public. And the Dance Division is now in the capable, charming, Irish hands of Linda Murray, who is proving to be an exemplary Curator.