Tucked into a corner behind the theaters of the Lincoln Center campus lies a treasure as great as any of them, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The library’s invaluable records, references and recordings are the first stop for any dance performer, writer or scholar needing information. I spent many hours there before Youtube comparing a quarter century’s worth of performance recordings of “Agon” that I wouldn’t have been able to find anywhere else. Its use hasn’t diminished: last month I did the same thing with performance recordings of “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet.” And still, those recordings can only be found there.
This precious resource, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, is celebrating its 75th anniversary. To mark its diamond jubilee, the library is having a gala this Wednesday at 6:30 pm. It is the Performing Arts Library after all, so there will be performances. Ephrat Asherie, The Bang Group, Jean Butler, Adrian Danchig-Waring (making his choreographic debut), Heidi Latsky, Michelle Manzanales, Rajika Puri, and Pam Tanowitz will create new works tailored to the space, and as icing on the cake, Sarah Lane and Gonzalo Garcia will be performing excerpts from Jerome Robbins’ “Other Dances” (which itself was created for a Library fundraiser in 1976).
If you’d like to go, tickets are still available by emailing the Dance Division Curator Linda Murray at lindamurray@nypl.org. It isn’t cheap, but it’s for a great cause. As Murray explains, “The gala is an opportunity for us to acknowledge the generations of dance librarians whose work has kept the story of dance safe. All proceeds will go toward providing core services to the dance field whom we serve.”
Cover: Pointe shoe worn by Anna Pavlova. Photo © Jonathan Blanc.
