Northern Ballet

Description

These are the papers of Northern Ballet, formerly known as Northern Dance Theatre (1969-1976) and Northern Ballet Theatre (1976-2010). The archive covers all aspects of the Company’s on-site and touring activities, from its 220+ production repertoire to its dance training Academy and Education work. It includes governance and administrative records; production material, such as research, designs and technical information; publicity material, such as posters, programmes and press cuttings; photographs and video.


The collection is arranged functionally by Company department (Governance, Administration, Communications, Company & Stage Management, Learning, Development, Academy, Music, and Technical), with the addition of Assorted Papers and Personal Papers, and three series arranged by format: Photographs, Posters and Audio-Visual material. The name of the choreographer and Company/world premiere year is included for productions where the Company has created more than one version of this ballet, e.g., ‘Dracula’ (Pink, 1996) and ‘Dracula’ (Nixon 2005).

Biography or history

Northern Ballet was formerly known as Northern Dance Theatre (1969-1976) and Northern Ballet Theatre (1976-2010). Northern Ballet was established in Manchester in March 1969 and since then has grown from humble beginnings to become a national and international leader in dance and live theatre and facilitator of education and community projects. The Company takes inspiration from an eclectic mix of classical dance, theatre, and literature. It is renowned for creating original full-length narrative ballets and new interpretations of popular classical ballets designed to appeal to as many people as possible.


Northern Ballet is a touring Company, performing across the UK and on occasion internationally. Under the leadership of the fifth Artistic Director, David Nixon OBE, the Company moved to a new purpose-built site in central Leeds in 2010, and since then, has also been providing world class dance facilities for the local community and a home for the Academy of Northern Ballet, a leading centre of excellence for dance in the North of England. The collection comprises institutional records and personal papers, telling the story of Northern Ballet from foundation in 1969 to 2021, a period of five Artistic Directors and four locations in Manchester (1969-1990), Halifax (1990-1996) and Leeds (1996-).

Provenance

Donated by: Northern Ballet

Access and usage

Access

This collection has not been listed in detail and access to parts of it may be protected under the Data Protection Act and other relevant legislation. If you would like to request access to any part of this collection, please contact Special Collections. Upon receipt of your request, a member of the team will discuss your requirements with you and review relevant material accordingly

Related subjects / tags

WARNING: many of our records have not been classified by subject. So if you search our catalogue by subject using the links below then you are unlikely to find all relevant records. But you will find some...