Basic resources for dance: library catalogs, streaming performance databases, reference books, new acquisitions
See these research guides for more resources on finding books, articles, reviews and more:
Cameo and Other Library Catalogs
Cameo Carnegie Mellon University Libraries catalog to find books, articles, media, videos, recordings and more at CMU.
Pittcat University of Pittsburgh Library holdings
The Catalog Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh holdings; excellent music and scores collection
Pittsburgh library catalogs of Duquesne University, Chatham University, Carlow University, Point Park University, and Robert Morris University.
WorldCat includes holdings for all of the above as well as other local, regional, national and international library holdings.
Performance Archives
Dance Online: Dance Studies Collection
Primary and secondary full-text materials to support informed performance, pedagogy, and scholarship in 20th and 21st century dance through photographs, correspondence, magazines, dance notation, and reference material.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive
A growing open-access collection of dance videos filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today. Includes essays.
Article Databases
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full-Text
Scholarly research database for theatre and dance studies.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database (formerly International Index to the Performing Arts)
Articles covering the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Coverage: 1864-current
For more databases see Drama: Databases for Theatre
Ontheboards.tv
High-quality films of full-length performances by current provocative artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms.
Dance Online: Dance in Video
...productions and documentaries in streaming video with influential performers and companies of the 20th century. Includes ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, improvisational dance, and forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance;
search, browse, cite or bookmark videos to the moment; make custom clips, annotate and share them.
Dance Tech: A Social Network for Innovators in Motion
Includes video
Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive
A growing open-access collection of dance videos filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today. Includes essays.
Kanopy Streaming Service
Provides remote access to over 25,000 documentary and feature films on many subjects: arts, business, global studies, health, sciences, technical training, etc.
Medici.tv
Offers filmed concerts performed by today’s greatest names in classical music, archive movies, inspiring documentaries on performers and composers, educational programs, and master classes.
Met Opera on Demand
Provides unlimited access to more than 450 extraordinary Met performances.
Music and Performing Arts
Allows cross-searching of audio, video, scores and full text reference content from all Alexander Street Press Music databases to which Carnegie Mellon subscribes. Includes dance, film, and theatre.
Numeridance.tv
La plateforme multimédia de la danse
Opera in Video
...important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews and documentaries; selections are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.
PBS (search on Dance)
Dance videos produced via the Public Broadcasting. Some are online open-access.
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Lightboxes
Includes video archives of Rauschenberg's collaborations with John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown
Theatre in Video
...definitive performances and documentaries in streaming video with leading actors, playwrights and directors covering a wide range of 20th century theatre history. Includes contemporary revivals of classic works, television broadcasts of New York productions, experimental performances and more;
search, browse and bookmark scenes, monologues, and staging examples to a link that can be shared.
Ubu Web Dance
Ubu Web's Film and Dance collection
American Song
Streaming music from Americans of diverse origins and all walks of life, from America’s past and present.
Classical Music in Video
Streaming video of classical music performances by leading orchestras, chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world.
Classical Music Library
Streaming audio with a supplementary reference database, enabling patrons to listen while simultaneously searching and browsing the Classical reference database. Send-to-mobile functionality.
Classical Scores Library
Encompasses more than one million pages of classical scores for teaching and study. Includes a mix of public domain, previously unpublished, and in-copyright works from all major classical music genres and time periods.
Library Music Source
This is the online version of the CD Sheet Music and Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library CD-ROMs. The music is selected from out-of-copyright standard editions from publishers such as Breitkopf and Hartel, C.F. Peters, G. Schirmer, Carl Fischer, G. Ricordi, Durand and many others. The editorial staff for CD Sheet Music has chosen the best edition available for each work.
Medici.tv
Offers filmed concerts performed by today’s greatest names in classical music, archive movies, inspiring documentaries on performers and composers, educational programs, and master classes.
Met Opera on Demand
Provides unlimited access to more than 450 extraordinary Met performances.
Music Online Collections
Streaming audio, video, scores and full text reference content from all Alexander Street Press perfomance databases to which Carnegie Mellon subscribes: American Song, Classical Music Library, Classical Music Video, Classical Scores Library, Opera in Video, Dance in Video, Theatre in Video.
Naxos Music Library
Streaming recordings for genres such as Classical, Jazz, Blues, Nostalgia, World, Contemporary Instrumental, Chinese, Pop and Rock, Gospel, Spoken Word, and Relaxation. iPhone and Android apps available.
Naxos Music Library Jazz
Streaming music from the artists and collections of Fantasy Records.
OnTheBoards.tv
Watch high-quality films of full-length performances by some of today’s most provocative artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms.
Physics and Dance by
A fascinating exploration of our reality through the eyes of a physicist and a dancer--and an engaging introduction to both disciplines From stepping out of our beds each morning to admiring the stars at night, we live in a world of motion, energy, space, and time. How do we understand the phenomena that shape our experience? How do we make sense of our physical realities? Two guides--a former member of New York City Ballet, Emily Coates, and a CERN particle physicist, Sarah Demers--show us how their respective disciplines can help us to understand both the quotidian and the deepest questions about the universe. Requiring no previous knowledge of dance or physics, this introduction covers the fundamentals while revealing how a dialogue between art and science can enrich our appreciation of both. Readers will come away with a broad cultural knowledge of Newtonian to quantum mechanics and classical to contemporary dance. Including problem sets and choreographic exercises to solidify understanding, this book will be of interest to anyone curious about physics or dance.
Osumare, Halifu. Dancing in Blackness: A Memoir. Gainseville, Florida: University of Florida, 2018
E-Book
Winkler, Kevin.Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.
HUNT STACKS-4 GV1785 F67 W56 2018
Beaman, Patricia. World Dance Cultures: From Ritual to Spectacle. Abingdon, Oxon: New York, NY: Routledge, 2018
E-Book
Weinel, Jonathan. Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media. New York: NY: Oxford University Press, 2018
HUNT STACKS-4 ML3838 .W33 2018
Reference
Bremser, Martha. International Dictionary of Ballet. Detroit: St. James Press, 1993.
HUNT FA-REF-4 792.8 I61 2 volumes
Craine, Debra and Mackrell, Judith. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
HUNT FA-REF-4 792.8 C 886o
Spain, Louise. Dance on Camera: A Guide to Dance Films and Videos. London: Scarecrow Press and New York: Neal Schumann Publishers, Inc., 1998.
HUNT FA-REF-4 792.8 D173a
Accelerated Motion: Towards a New Dance Literacy
Interactive educational materials aimed at fostering a multidisciplinary understanding of how movement ideas are enacted in various aspects of American culture.
Ballets Russes Archives (University of Oklahoma)
Documentation on the history of the Ballets Russes
A growing open-access collection of dance videos filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today. Includes essays.
Dance Alloy @ the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh.
Ask about viewing their dance video archive.
Merce Cunningham: Dance Capsules (Merce Cunningham Trust)
Films and footage of rehearsals and performances
Dance Films Association
Creator of the Dance on Camera Festival. DFA promotes affinities between dance and film by " providing infrastructure for the dance film genre, and serving as an international hub for dance on camera and strives to " promote films of value which engage viewers to question the world around them." DFA is currently building online access to their film archive.
Dance Notation Bureau
The Dance Notation Bureau is a special collection whose mission is to "advance the art of dance through the use of a system notation". It produces and archives dance scores. The website contains the Theatrical Dances Collection online catalog, essays, news and resource links. DNBs You Tube Channel contains dance excerpts illustrating dance notation.The Dance Notation Bureau's Extension for Education and Research is located at The Ohio State University.
Motion Bank
Research, documentation and scores for the first phase of a four-year project (2010-2013) of The Forsythe Company providing a context for research into choreographic practice..
National Resource Centre for Dance (University of Surrey)
Training, resources, archives, projects
Pittsburgh Dance Council: Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS)
National Center for Choreography