Finding Dance on Video
This page will walk you through accessing dance performance videos both online and in physical form in MPAL's collection. For additional resource recommendations, check out the Main Library's guide on Finding Images and Video (linked below). In addition to general resources, it features a page specific to dance and theatre.
- Finding Images and Video: Theatre and DanceA guide to image and video collections related to various disciplines.
Online Collections with Access to Full Performances
The library subscription databases listed below include online access to full performances. They are available to you both on and off campus, though you may have to authenticate with your NetID and password to gain access. If you ever encounter a pay wall or other access barrier, please reach out for help using our Ask a Librarian service before paying for a resource!
- Broadway HD This link opens in a new windowBroadwayHD collects recordings of theatre and film performances both historical and from the 21st century.
- Dance in Video: Volumes I, II & III This link opens in a new windowDance in Video contains dance productions and documentaries by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th century. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational dance, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance.
- Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new windowDigital Theatre Plus includes recordings of classic, contemporary and international live theatre performances, interviews exploring the dramatic, technical theatre-making process as well as experimental, post-dramatic and applied theatre, and essays, documentaries, lectures, and study guides covering theatre history, context, language analysis, encyclopedia entries, and practical techniques.
- Dance at Illinois Video ArchiveThe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Dance Department online archive.
- NumeridanseNumeridanse is a multimedia dance platform. It offers free access to a unique video base: filmed performances, documentaries, interviews, fictions, dance videos. Every single genre, style and form is showcased here: butoh, classical ballet, neo-classical ballet, baroque, Indian, African, flamenco, contemporary, traditional dances, hip-hop, tango, jazz, circus arts, performance, etc.
Online Collections with Access to Performance Excerpts
The collections below are great resources to consult if you are interested in viewing excerpts of dance performances. If you are only interested in accessing full performances, stick to the sources recommended in the preceding box.
- Jacob's Pillow Dance InteractiveJacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive is an ever-growing collection of dance videos filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today. Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, a National Medal of Arts recipient, and home to America’s longest running dance festival.
- New York Public Library Digital CollectionsThis site has links to multiple dance related resources including Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection, the Claire Holt Collection of Indonesian Dance and Related Arts, and Dance in Photographs and Prints. The majority of the video material is restricted to on site viewing, but the image resources are diverse and expansive.
Physical Formats: Finding Video at MPAL
The Music & Performing Arts Library has recordings in all formats: VHS, laser disc, and DVD and audio cassettes, LPs, and CDs, and online streaming audio and video. Our CDs and DVDs can be borrowed and we also have equipment in the library to listen to/watch all of the formats we have in our collections. Ask at the Service Desk for help!
When you look up a video in the library catalog, the call number tells you the format of the item, as does the Format information in the Details section.
DVDs
VHS tapes
Laserdiscs
