Jose Limon, dance faculty

After World War II, Martha Hill wanted to resume the dance school and festival that she had administered at Bennington College. Economic hardships of the war had resulted in Bennington's having to forsake their famous summer dance program. Rusty Bloomer, physical education and dance instructor at Connecticut College, suggested that the school of dance and the American Dance Festival (A.D.F.)'s new home be Connecticut College. The college's auditorium and its proximity to Boston and New York made the school an ideal location. In 1948 Connecticut College became the new sponsor, a relationship which lasted for thirty years.

The collection consists of the files of college presidents Rosemary Park, Charles Shain, and Oakes Ames. The files include budgets and the presidents' correspondence with directors and of the school and festival. The collection also includes the files of Margaret Thompson, the college's publicity director. These files contain news releases and newspaper clippings, flyers, posters, bulletins of courses, directories of attendees, festival programs, and budgets. Of special interest are the publicity photographs of the dancers in various A.D.F. productions.

The collection also includes labanotation notebooks for Sophie Maslow's "Folksay" and Doris Humphrey's "Song of the West" and "Shakers."

It also includes eleven of the 16mm films belonging to the college's dance notation project: "Witch Doctor"; Charles Wiedman's "Atavisms"; Doris Humphrey's "Life of the Bee" and "Air for G String"; Martha Graham's "Frontier," "El Penitente," and "Primitive Mysteries"; Merce Cunningham's "Crisis" and "Summer space"; Paul Taylor's "Aureole"; and Jose Limon's "La Malinche." These films have been transferred to video.

A finding aid is available. This collection is open to the public.