| Collecting Strand | National Resource Centre for Dance |
| Level | Collection |
| Ref No | EM |
| Alt Ref No | EM |
| Title | EMMA/Midlands Dance Company Archive |
| Date | 1970s-1986 |
| Extent | 25 boxes of papers, 7 boxes of photographs, 3 DVDs, 3 betacam videos, 1 umatic tape and 3 open reel videos |
| Name of Creator | EMMA Dance Company Limited |
| Midlands Dance Company |
| Description | EMMA Dance Company was established in 1976. It arose from the appointment of Gideon Avrahami as arts worker at East Midlands Arts. He created the EMMA dance and theatre companies. EMMA Dance Company gave its first performance in January 1977 with Avrahami as its Artistic Director and Jacqueline Jeffrey as Company Manager. The company was founded primarily by East Midlands Arts but also received grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain, Nottinghamshire County Council, Northern Arts and the Gulbenkian Foundation, in addtion to private sponsorship. In 1981 East Midlands Arts discontinued funding and the company became independent.
In 1982 the theatre company disbanded and the dance company obtained joint funding from East and West Midlands Arts and was renamed Midlands Dance Company. In August 1982 the company achieved charitable status and gave is debut performance in March 1983. At this time Avrahami resigned as Artistic Director and Nicholas Carroll took over, having previously been rehearsal director. In around 1985 the company was renamed the New Midlands Dance Company.
The archive comprises recordings of performances, photographs of performances and company members, records relating to staff, information relating to tours, publicity material, press cuttings, correspondence files, reports, grant applications and correspondence with funding 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. |
| Accruals | No accruals are expected. |