Overview
Papers and Royal Danish Ballet oral history interviews of American dance critic, Tobi Tobias.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1950-2012
Language of Materials
Includes material in English, Danish, and French.
Access to oral histories of the Royal Danish Ballet
Access to the oral history interviews and the corresponding transcripts is governed by the wishes of the individual oral author, during the oral author's lifetime. After the oral author's death, their memoir is open for consultation.
The compiler has required that all researchers read a short introduction to the collection before consulting the recordings or the transcripts. This introduction is available in Houghton Library.
Oral history project administrative records are restricted: consult the Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection.
The bulk of this collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Copyright:
Rights to the content of the oral memoirs rest with the oral author during his/her lifetime; upon the oral author's death, these rights revert to the Library of the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.
The Harvard Theatre Collection has agreed to serve as the American custodian of the oral history project. The Library of the Royal Theatre (Det kongelige Teaters Bibliotek og Arkiv), Copenhagen, is the Danish custodian, and the owner of copyright to interview tapes and transcripts after the deaths of individual oral authors.
Extent
5 linear feet (113 master audiocassettes, 113 research audiocassettes, 213 audio CD-ROMs, and 3 boxes)44 linear feet (39 boxes, 3 media boxes)
Papers include reviews and other writings of Tobi Tobias; correspondence; children's book files; photographs; notebooks; libretti; recordings, transcripts, and administrative records for oral history interviews of the Royal Danish Ballet; research files; and programs.
Includes oral history of the Royal Danish Ballet and its Bournonville tradition material. Transcripts of the memoirs were made by Tobi Tobias with the help of Alexandra Tomalonis and Rea Wilmshurst.
Biographical / Historical
Tobi Tobias was an American dance writer who specialized in classical ballet. She was the dance critic for New York magazine from 1980 to 2002. Associated with Dance magazine from 1971 to 1998, she wrote criticism, profiles, and feature stories, editing the journal's criticism from 1976 to 1983. She wrote extensively on the Royal Danish Ballet and its Bournonville heritage. The centenary Bournonville Festival in Copenhagen in 1979 catalyzed her desire to record, through the creation of oral memoirs, significant aspects of Danish ballet history that were likely to remain unwritten and thus eventually lost. Her earlier work in oral history included participation in the Oral History Project of the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center for its entire six-year duration. For a decade, Ms. Tobias taught dance criticism in the Dance Department of Barnard College, Columbia University. She was also the author of numerous books for children. In 1992, she was knighted by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
Arrangement
Arranged as received.
- I. Master audiocassettes and reserach use audiocassettes
- II. Compact discs
- III. Project administrative records and transcripts of oral history interviews
- Index
Physical Location
Harvard Depository, b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2003MT-236. Gift of Tobi Tobias, with the written permission of the oral authors; received: 1987-1999.
Index
- Andersen, Frank, 1953-
- Bech, Arne, b. 1942
- Beck, Hans, 1861-1952
- Bjorn, Dinna, 1947-
- Bjornsson, FredBjorn, 1926-1993
- Borchsenius, Valborg, 1872-1949
- Bournonville, August, 1805-1879
- Brenaa, Hans, 1910-1988
- Bruhn, Erik, 1928-1986
- Buchwald, Jette, 1947-
- Brdtcher, Mette, 1965-
- Eliasen, Johnny, 1949-
- Englund, Sorella, 1945-
- Flindt, Flemming, b. 1936
- Frishri, Tommy, 1941-
- Jensen, Mona, 1935-
- Jeppesen, Lis, 1956-
- Karstens, Gerda, 1903-1988
- Kehlet, Niels, 1938-
- Kirk, Mette-Ida, 1955-
- Kronstam, Henning, 1934-1995
- Lander, Harald, 1905-1971
- Lander, Margot, 1910-1961
- Larsen, Niels Bjorn, 1913-2003
- Merrild, Karl, 1889-1973
- Paaske, Benedikte, 1956-
- Pedersen, Edel, 1902-1991
- Ralov, Borge, 1908-1981
- Ralov, Kirsten, 1922-1999
- Ryberg, Flemming, 1940-
- Schamme, Margrethe, 1921-
- Schaufuss, Frank, 1921-1997
- Simone, Kirsten, 1934-
- Tomasson, Helgi, 1942-
- Vessel, Anne Marie, 1949-
- Volkova, Vera, 1904-1975
- Weinreich, Arlette, 1940-
- Kongelige Danske Ballet
- Pantomime Theatre (Copenhagen, Denmark)
- Royal Danish Ballet
Subject
- Barnard College. Department of Dance (Organization)
- Bournonville, August, 1805-1879 (Person)
- Kongelige Danske ballet (Organization)
- Title
- Tobias, Tobi. Tobi Tobias papers, circa 1950-2012 (MS Thr 426): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou01488
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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