| Collecting Strand | National Resource Centre for Dance |
| Level | Collection |
| Ref No | KL |
| Title | INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF KINETOGRAPHY LABAN/LABANOTATION (ICKL) ARCHIVE |
| Date | 1950-2005 |
| Extent | 183 files of papers, 20 audiotapes, 7 books, 8 files of photographs, 4 posters, 51 issues of newsletters, 4 computer disks (catalogued material)
8 volumes of conference proceedings and 3 folders (uncatalogued) |
| Name of Creator | International Council of Kinetography Laban/Labanotation (ICKL); 1959-present |
| Description | The International Council of Kinetography Laban/Labanotation (ICKL) is the organisation responsible for the development of the movement notation system pioneered by Rudolf Laban. ICKL was founded in 1959 at its first international conference, organised by the Laban Art of Movement Centre in Addlestone, Surrey, UK.
ICKL promotes the use of the system and encourages research for its development and applications. The Council acts as a deciding body with regard to the orthography and principles of the system; an alteration of a notation symbol or the refinement of movement terminology involves a process of research, presentations, discussion, and validation. ICKL's principal activities are a biennial conference, held in a different country each time, and publication of conference proceedings, bibliographies, and indexes.
ICKL's members join through an application and subscription system. They elect the Board of Trustees (formerly the Executive Committee), which runs the organisation. Honorary Members are elected by the board, and Fellows are elected by the Board of Fellows. Rudolf Laban authorised four people to be the guardians of his notation system, who were officially recognised as ICKL's 'core members': Albrecht Knust, Ann Hutchinson Guest, Sigurd Leeder, and Lisa Ullmann. The 'core' elected another member, Valerie Preston-Dunlop, after which it was stated that no further core members could be elected.
The archive documents the official and unofficial work surrounding the biennial conferences from 1959 onward, with earlier files of correspondence between Rudolf Laban and key ICKL members dating back to 1950. The papers files include minutes and reports of meetings, conference proceedings, conference administration, papers on Labanotation-related matters, Labanotation copyright contract, correspondence between ICKL members and related individuals/organisations, records of accounts and finances, ICKL by-laws and constitution, ICKL membership details, and Labanotation scores. |
| Arrangement | The original titles of the files have largely been kept, with a more accurate description added in the description field of the catalogue record. Some similarity can be seen in the naming of the file according to who was keeping records of the council's work at a particular point in time. The earlier files appear to be from the filing cabinets of Edna Geer, Sally Archbutt, and Odette Blum (Secretaries 1961-1983), Rhoda Golby (Treasurer 1961-1979), and Lisa Ullmann (Chairman 1975-1979). Following this are the combined files of Lucy Venable (Chairman 1981-1983, Vice Chairman 1979, 1985-1995) and Ann Kipling Brown (Chairman 1989-1995). The later files belonged to Marion Bastien (Conference Organiser 1995, Secretary 1997-2001, and Chairman 2000-). For the online catalogue, some subject headings were added before the titles of some files in order to group files on similar subjects more clearly. The headings are: Committees, Conferences (followed by the number), Constitution, Correspondence, Finances, Membership, Papers, Publications. |
| Accruals | Further deposits are expected. |
| Related Material | See also the following collections held by the University of Surrey:
Lisa Ullmann Archive, archive ref LU
Rudolf Laban, archive ref L
Labanotation books held in the core collect, archive ref XZB |
| Physical Description | Early documents are in a fragile condition. Listening copies must be made of the audiotape masters. |
| Custodial History | ICKL deposited the bulk of the archive (12 boxes) in 1988. In 2000, Lucy Venable and Muriel Topaz sent a second deposit of three boxes. The third deposit, of computer disks, came from Marion Bastien in 2004. Since 1999, the NRCD has been on ICKL's mailing list and therefore receives all the mailouts sent to members. Further deposits are expected. Preservation and cataloguing of the initial deposit were funded by a grant from the Follett Initiative; subsequent deposits by the Dance Data Online project grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board. |
| Category | Notation: Labanotation, Kinetography Laban |