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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 426

Tobi Tobias papers

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.

Conditions Governing Access

The bulk of this collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

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.

  1. I. Master audiocassettes and reserach use audiocassettes
  2. II. Compact discs
  3. III. Project administrative records and transcripts of oral history interviews
  4. 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.

Related Materials

The Library of the the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, serving as the Danish custodian of the oral history collection, holds a duplicate set of the materials described above, with the exception of the master tapes.

Index

Life dates for some of the names on the list were provided by the oral historian or the staff of the Harvard Theatre Collection, and may not exactly match the authorized form of the name as given in HOLLIS.
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
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.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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