Tucked in boxes, pasted into scrapbooks and stuffed in attics around Victoria are records of the dancers who've touched this town. There's a program from renowned ballerina Anna Pavlova's touring company's 1924 performance, a profile from the late-1940s of the Ivings sisters who would go on to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada, as well as newspaper reviews of local dance recitals through the 1960s - once a norm in the daily paper.
Some of those materials will soon have a proper home, as Dance Victoria builds an archive of local dance history, following a sizable donation of photos, newspaper clippings and the like dating back more than 80 years.
"We have our own materials from ad campaigns over the past 16 years and also, along the way, we've been given programs and other bits and pieces from patrons," said associate producer Elise Wren. "But this is the first big donation of materials we're accepting."
The presentation company has hired dance historian Amy Bowring, who works for federally incorporated publisher, archive and resource centre Dance Collection Danse, to help determine the best way to deal with the historic materials.
"She's going to advise us what we need to do, to either house the materials here, or work with another archiving organization to house them out of house," Wren said. "Our hope is to be able to showcase the materials in sort of a rotating display at Dance Victoria."
Vivian Love, who ran the Vivian Briggs School of Dance from 1958 to 1974 and went on to work with the Vancouver Island Ballet Society and DanceWorks, donated the bulk of the material - thousands of photos, newspaper clippings and more.
"The dance archive that's being set up now is a dream come true," said Love. "It's been a passion of mine for over 30 years."
Love said she began collecting at the initiative of Maureen Duffus, a local dance historian and former Daily Colonist writer. Duffus had already begun collecting earlier materials - especially relating to her own teacher Dorothy Wilson, whose students went on to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Ballet Theatre and more. Love, on the other hand, has focused her collection on the four teachers who owned the scene when she began teaching: Wynne Shaw, Velda Wille, Florence Clough and Bebe Eversfield.
"Although we were competitors, they were also very encouraging and supportive of the new kid on the block," she said. "I thought, gosh, I really owe it to these people. ... So it was just kind of a labour of love, really."
The highlight of her collection has been showcasing Victoria's connection with outside dance worlds. Sheila Mackinnon became a principal dancer at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, while Annette Ullrich joined the Stuttgart Ballet and Judith Garay joined New York's Martha Graham Dance Company, she said.
"What I've discovered is Victoria has had a ton of young dancers in the professional life either as dancers, performers, or teachers. And it's incredible the number of people who've gone on to fame and fortune," she said.
Love said she hopes young dancers will get a sense of the people who helped build Victoria's dance world, through the archive.
"I would like the young dancers who are studying in the city today to be able to see what that rich history was," she said. "I think that's mainly my motivation."
Bowring, who is also here to teach workshops on independent archiving, brings experience from the largest archive for theatrical dance in Canada, based in Toronto. Her free workshop for individuals today, called Grass Roots Archiving, includes handson activities relating to proper storage and organization of materials. The workshop is at the Nellie McClung Library from 1 to 4 p.m., and registration is available through Dance Victoria.
"It's sort of the basics of archiving, where people can learn what to hang on to and how to look after it well and things that one can just do in their own home or office. That's basically to protect the record as it's being made, before it's deposited in an archive, museum or library."
She recommends that collectors hold on to things like photos, house programs, choreographic notes, rehearsal notes, grant applications, posters, fliers, newspaper clippings and contracts. [email protected]
