| Collecting Strand | National Resource Centre for Dance |
| Level | Collection |
| Ref No | LG |
| Title | LABAN GUILD ARCHIVE |
| Date | 1945-1991 |
| Extent | 84 files of papers, 40 photographs, 1 poster, 1 object, 3 theatre programmes, 16 periodicals (catalogued material).
6 boxes and 1 batch of posters (uncatalogued material). |
| Name of Creator | Laban Guild of Movement and Dance; 1946-present; membership organisation |
| Description | The Laban Guild of Movement and Dance promotes and advances the study of Laban-based movement and dance through conferences, courses, and publications. Lisa Ullmann and Sylvia Bodmer, colleagues of Rudolf Laban, founded the organisation in 1946, as the Laban Art of Movement Guild. In the early days, the main events were the annual conference and the weekend refresher course, but over time demand led to an increase in events. The Guild is governed by a council and has an elected president and chairman. When the Guild was founded, Rudolf Laban was elected president for life.
The archive covers the Laban Guild's activities from 1945 to 1991, including courses, conferences and festivals organised by the Guild, membership, examinations, annual reports, AGMS, revisions to the constitution, membership records, and meetings of the council. In addition, there are records relating to the preparatory work for the 25th anniversary celebration, Kaleidoscopia Vivia, held at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970 and material relating to the preparation of the Guild's first magazine, 'Movement'.
The archive also contains a few issues of the Guild's magazines and newsletters, which were added as needed to the National Resource Centre for Dance's already significant run of these titles held in thecore periodicals collection, archive ref XZK. Willi Soukop's bust of Rudolf Laban, commissioned by the Guild c. 1956, is on loan to the NRCD and displayed in the Research Room.
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| Arrangement | The archive was sorted into categories, and subject headings were given to most files of papers. These headings are:
o Annual General Meetings
o Annual Accounts/Reports
o Correspondence
o Council
o Courses and Conferences
o Examinations
o Kaleidoscopia Viva Festival
o Membership
o Publications
Catalogue records for the Laban Guild Magazine (1948-1991) include the contents of each issue. |
| Related Material | Rudolf Laban Archive, Lisa Ullmann Archive, Joan Russell Archive, Core Periodicals Collection
See also the following collections held by the University of Surrey:
Rudolf Laban Archive, archive ref L
Lisa Ullmann Archive, archive ref LU
Joan Russell Archive, archive ref JR
The following periodicals produced by the Laban Guild are held in the core periodicals collection, archive ref XZK
Movement
Laban Art of Movement guild Magazine
Movement & Dance. |
| Physical Description | Early papers are fragile. |
| Custodial History | Past chairmen Sheila McGivering and Anna Carlisle deposited the archive in 1996. It was primarily their own papers from their years as Guild members and chairmen, along with a box of files covering the Guild's early years that Lisa Ullmann had given McGivering. Hilary Corlett filled in some gaps in the NRCD's run of Guild periodicals in 2004. Further deposits are expected. Preservation and cataloguing of the archive were funded by the Dance Data Online project grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board. |