sINCERELY YOURS

The archives of Dance Collection Danse contain substantial quantities of correspondence – from Maud Allan’s letters to her family in the 1890s to Alison Sutcliffe’s letters home from the Metropolitan Opera Ballet during the 1920s; from Bettina Byers’s war-time correspondence with English ballet stars such as Beryl Grey and Adeline Genée to Celia Franca’s war-time aerograms. From postcards to opening night cards to formal business letters, correspondence shows us connections within the dance community and connections to the world around the writers. And as we contemplate our own busy 2-century world, and how often we start emails with “sorry for the delay in responding”, rest assured that this phrase has echoed through human correspondence for eons. The following collection of letters draws from some of the earliest correspondence at DCD and highlights communications at seminal points in history or with other notable international players in the dance field. Many of the letters come from the collections that contain significant quantities of correspondence; primarily Maud Allan, Alison Sutcliffe, Nesta Toumine, Celia Franca, Rosemary Deveson, and Jim Bolsby, among others.

Dance Collection Danse’s correspondence collections have helped numerous researchers from students to journalists to authors. As we are now in the midst of a world where cursive writing is either minimally or no longer taught to school children, the need for transcription of hand-writing in archives and museums is needed more than ever so that humanity still has access to its history, thus preventing a future situation where a Rosetta Stone is required for interpretation. 

Amy Bowring
Curator