| Collecting Strand | National Resource Centre for Dance |
| Level | Collection |
| Ref No | AW |
| Title | AUDREY WETHERED AND CHLOE GARDNER ARCHIVE |
| Date | 1945-1995 |
| Extent | 9 boxes, 18 books, 3 periodicals |
| Name of Creator | Wethered; Audrey G (1903-2001) |
| Gardner; Chloe E |
| Description | The collection constitutes the joint archive of the movement therapists Audrey Wethered and Chloë Gardner. Wethered and Gardner were known for their work drawing upon the ideas of the movement theorist Rudolf Laban and applying these to a range of settings within the fields of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and the management of learning disabilities; it is this professional work that forms the focus of the archive collection. The archive chiefly comprises materials based on Wethered's application of Laban's movement principles in her clinical, workshop and written work, and also includes papers relating to her collaborations with Gardner.
Included within the archive are: hand-written notes for practical sessions; reports on the three Sesame projects led by Wethered and Gardner, 1970-1974 (run at Goodmayes Hospital, Ilford; Leavesden Hospital, Hertfordshire; and Smith Hospital, Henley); lectures and papers on movement therapy; student notes, evaluations and essays; music scores; general correspondence; and Wethered's thesis, 'The Art of Movement in Health and Illness'. Of particular interest are Wethered's early notebooks documenting private sessions with Laban and classes with Marion North, Lisa Ullmann, Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Geraldine Stephenson and others. The archive also includes a small collection of books owned by Wethered relating to movement, education and psychiatry.
This collection and its catalogue contains terminology or content which could be considered offensive. The language used in the catalogue records reflect that of the original items and has been retained to record the language used at the time the item was created. It in no way reflects the attitudes of the cataloguer or the University of Surrey. |
| Arrangement | Material arranged at time of cataloguing according to the format-based classification scheme which was then in use by the National Resource Centre for Dance. Following the second deposit of papers, files were significantly reorganised by the cataloguer in order to eliminate duplication across the two deposits, and to separate out particularly sensitive materials so that opportunities for researcher access to the collection could be maximised. Additional sorting work was undertaken on the files documenting the Sesame projects, with the context of mixed files separated out into their distinct projects. As far as possible, the original titles assigned to the files by Audrey Wethered have been retained. |
| Administrative History | Audrey Wethered (1903-2001) was a movement therapist. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music where she was awarded an LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music). Wethered went on to train as a private pupil with Rudolf Laban, whom she met in 1953, at the Art of Movement Studio. She also studied with Lisa Ullmann, Warren Lamb and Marion North. Drawing on the work of Laban, Wethered's work focused on the use of movement principles in therapy with a range of client groups, including children and adults with mental health issues, and adults with learning disabilities.
Chloë Gardner (d. 2012) was an occupational therapist and movement therapist. She graduated in 1944 from the London School of Occupational Therapy and went on to work at Springfields Hospital, London, in 1945. Previously she had studied concepts of Effort and Space at the Jooss/Leeder summer school in 1931 and then with Rudolf Laban, Lisa Ullmann and Warren Lamb. She too employed Laban movement skills in her work, and in 1950 moved to Friern Hospital, London as Deputy Head Occupational Therapist.
Wethered and Gardner sometimes worked together as professional therapists and as lecturers in movement therapy training. One major area of their work together was with three Sesame projects: working with patients with schizophrenia at the Goodmayes Hospital, Ilford (1970), adult mental health patients at the Leavesden Hospital, Hertfordshire (1972), and with autistic children at the Smith Hospital, Henley (1974). Although neither was trained in Sesame teaching methods, the studies were run and documented as Sesame projects. In another major joint project, Wethered and Gardner were visiting tutors at Cleveland University Summer School (USA) in 1987, where they gave lectures, classes and demonstrations on the use of movement principles in therapy.
In 1973 Wethered published Drama and Movement in Therapy (London: MacDonald & Evans). A second edition of which, published under the revised title of Movement and Drama in Therapy (London: Jessica Kingsley, 1993), had a foreword by Gardner. Wethered and Gardner also co-authored a chapter in Lorraine Burr (ed.) Therapy Through Movement (Nottingham Rehab Limited, 1986). |
| Language | English |
| Accruals | No further accruals expected. |
| Related Material | See also the following archives held by Archives and Special Collections, University of Surrey:
- Rudolf Laban Archive [collection reference: L];
- Lisa Ullmann Archive [collection reference: LU];
- Warren Lamb Archive [collection reference: WL];
- Geraldine Stephenson Archive [collection reference: JS];
- Betty Meredith-Jones Archive [collection reference: BMJ]. |
| Custodial History | The archive is principally formed of two substantive deposits of material from Audrey Wethered: an initial deposit from Wethered, c.1995, and a further deposit from Wethered's executors in 2001.
Preservation and cataloguing of the initial deposit were funded by a grant from the Follett Initiative; the second deposit by the Dance Data Online project grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
A small quantity of additional material was deposited by Judith Chapman in 2005. |