Research Guides: DANC 226: Gender and the Dancing Body: Films & Primary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are first-hand accounts, that serve as original evidence documenting a period, event, people, idea or work.

Primary sources can be printed materials like books or newspapers, manuscript and archival materials like diaries and documents, artifacts, and audio/visual materials. Primary materials can be found in analog, digitized, and born-digital forms.

Some examples of primary sources include:

Memoirs, speeches, writings, correspondence
Papers of a political party, agency, or association
Official documents such as congressional hearings and reports
Contemporary magazine and newspaper articles
Contemporary art, films, literature, and music
Contemporary artifacts, such as buildings and monuments

Finding Films in the Library Catalog

For films featuring specific choreographers, performers, or dance troupes do a Browse Search by author and then limit to Resource Type: Audiovisual.

Examples:

For films featuring a specific form of dance, do a Browse Search by Subject and then limit to Resource Type: Audiovisual. (Note: this search may also find feature films about the form of dance)

Examples:
To find performances, do a Browse Search by Title for the title of the piece or Browse Search by Subject related to the form and then limit to Resource Type: Audiovisual. (Note: this search may also find feature films about the form of dance. May also need to limit to location Sawyer DVD if the search finds too many CDs)

Examples:
- Swan Lake
- Ballets

Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers (US) This link opens in a new window
Searches across the full text and images of major U.S. and Black historical newspapers. Includes New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Defender, L.A. Times, and more.

For additional news sources, see the A-Z database list.

More Primary Sources Databases

We have lots of databases containing primary sources. See the full list.

Online Films

Dance in Video This link opens in a new window
Publication Dates: 1950s-Present
Includes streaming videos of classical and contemporary dance performances, documentaries by and about leading choreographers, and videos on dance training.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Contains streamed documentary and feature films. International coverage.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive
Provides excerpts of dance performances filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today. Browse by era, genre, artists, or playlists.
YouTube
YouTube is a great place to find lots of different types of video clips. However, be sure to evaluate the videos -- who created it, who uploaded it, where was it filmed, when was it filmed, who are the performers?

Images

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
A giant collection of high-resolution images. Focuses on art and architecture, but is also good for archaeology, anthropology, and history.
Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window
Publication Dates: 1844-Present
Current and historical archive of photographs, graphics, audio, and text created by the Associated Press.

Katherine Dunham Collection
Includes selection of photographs, film and videotape excerpts from Dunham's research and performing career, and selections from the Library of Congress's Dunham Legacy Project that documented the Dunham dance technique.

For additional image sources, see our How to Find Images guide.

Datasets

Dunham's Data
Dunham’s Data explores the kinds of questions and problems that make the analysis and visualization of data meaningful for dance history. The project team manually curate datasets from a large body of undigitized primary source print materials that Dunham herself chose to save, held by seven archives across the United States, which find meaning and expression in tandem with exploratory static and interactive data visualizations.