Heritage et AL

During the process of researching the dancing life of New Zealander Jan Caryll, I have discovered valuable insights into the history of New Zealand dance, significantly, teaching methods that link practices here to late nineteenth century European ballet. While accounts of local dance recitals in New Zealand from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including programmes and newspaper articles, mention the numerous dances performed by children, usually stating the name of an item and its performers, a lesser known element in these accounts are the styles and techniques of those dances. It has been assumed that dance in New Zealand in this era consisted of frivolous, somewhat exuberant displays of ‘fancy dancing’. While it is true that ‘fancy dancing’, a style enveloping a myriad of steps that propelled a dancer across, up and down the stage or studio, formed a component of dance classes and performances, my research has unearthed hidden evidence of strict and historically ...

Ephemera is the term for printed material originally intended to have a limited life-span, such as pamphlets, posters, tickets and flyers. Libraries collect ephemera because it enhances information found in longer-lasting documents, giving us a more complete picture of life at a given point in time. Some of this 'throwaway' material has considerable visual appeal because it often combines text with images. The performing arts is a major subject area of the  ephemera collection  in the Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries. Material in this collection dates from the 1850s to the present, with active collection by librarians beginning in the 1970s. The ephemera collection has a wide geographic scope which is nationwide. Usage of the collection for research purposes is broad and varied; with researchers ranging from social historians and popular non-fiction authors, to graphic design students and academics. Ephemera reflects both changing attitudes in society...