| Collecting Strand | National Resource Centre for Dance |
| Level | Collection |
| Ref No | LB |
| Title | Leslie Burrowes Archive |
| Date | 1899-1985 |
| Extent | 2.5 linear metres |
| Name of Creator | Burrowes; Lucie Leslie (1908-1985) |
| Description | The archive contains material created and collected by Leslie Burrowes relating to her dance training and career, including performing and teaching. The collection includes annotated photograph albums, scrapbooks containing news cuttings, photographs and programmes, and letters from Mary Wigman. A later deposit to the collection added many more letters from Mary Wigman dating from 1931-1966, a selection of books, and sketches and paintings by Burrowes of both still and moving bodies. |
| 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. |
| Administrative History | Leslie Burrowes (1908-1985) was an English dancer and teacher. Her career bridged the typically British styles of the 'Pioneer Women' of Hellenic-influenced dance and the predominantly German modern dance (Ausdruckstanz), imported into Britain from the 1930s. Burrowes trained in Margaret Morris Movement from 1924, becoming a performer and assistant teacher for Morris. In 1928 she became the first dance teacher at the progressive school and community at Dartington Hall in Devon. Dartington's philanthropic owner, Dorothy Elmhirst, subsidised her dance education in Dresden where she began at the school of the famous German dancer Mary Wigman in January 1930. This proved to be a breakthrough period in her development when she could fuse the strong, formal technique she gained from Margaret Morris with the inner feeling and expansive outward expression of Ausdruckstanz.
In the summer of 1931 she was the first British woman to receive the Wigman School's teaching certificate. In line with the Wigman ethos, Burrowes' dances encompassed a range of expressions from serene to grotesque, but she excelled in the vigorous and ebullient dances that came directly from her character; Primitive Joy being a signature piece. She also embraced the Wigman School's musical atmosphere with a range of percussive instruments integrated into performance. (She collected instruments from round the world.)
In 1933 she opened the Leslie Burrowes Studio of the Dance in the Chelsea home she shared with her husband, the oboist Leon Goossens. An expansion of activities in dance education and performance was conceived in 1938 when she opened The Dance Centre with Louise Soelberg, an American dancer formerly with Ballets Jooss. The outbreak of war closed the centre, however Burrowes continued to teach and perform. From the 1940s, she became an important link to later developments in the educational strands of modern dance in British schools, which originated from Ausdrucktanz and was generally attributed to Rudolf Laban (Wigman’s teacher) and his colleague Lisa Ullmann. Finding Laban’s approaches and method too formal, Burrowes remained true to the more fluid approach that she had encountered with Wigman in developing dance expression. Burrowes and Wigman remained close friends until Wigman's death. |
| Language | English |
| German |
| French |
| Related Material | See also the following archives held by Archives and Special Collections, University of Surrey:
- Natural Movement Archive [collection reference: NM];
- Bice Bellairs Collection of Revived Greek Dance [collection reference: BB];
- Classical Greek Dance Collection [collection reference: CGD];
- Ludmila Mlada (Ludi Horenstein) Archive [collection reference: LM];
- Pioneer Women Project Archive (uncatalogued) [collection reference: PW]. |
| Custodial History | The archive was donated to the University of Surrey by Jennie Goossens Cooke, daughter of Leslie Burrowes, in 2003. A further deposit of material took place in 2009. |