Laban (Juana de) papers, 1830-1975

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Summary

Title:
Juana de Laban papers
Dates:
1830-1975
Creators:
Laban, Juana de
Abstract:
Juana de Laban (1910-1978) was a dancer, teacher, choreographer, critic, and scholar who served as the director of graduate studies in theater at Baylor University, was a distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin, and was a dance faculty member at UCLA for nearly a decade. The collection consists of publications, periodicals, performance programs, photographs, writings, research notes, dance notation materials, and a slide collection with related card catalogs and instructional files. The materials document de Laban's interests in dance history, notation, Hungarian dance, modern dance, ballet, Denishawn, Japanese dance, and visual resources for the study and teaching of dance.
Extent:
3.6 linear feet (6 slide boxes, 4 boxes, 1 half box, 1 flat box, 1 shoebox)
Language:
Materials are in English, Hungarian, German, Japanese, and French.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Juana de Laban papers (Collection 1422). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains Juana de Laban's research, teaching, and collecting materials related to dance history, notation, performance, and criticism. Materials include correspondence, typed drafts and carbon copies, notes, sketches, clippings, photographs, books, pamphlets, dance programs, magazines, journals, and slides. The slide materials consist chiefly of a dance history slide collection arranged according to an alphabetical subject classification system with accompanying card catalog and master cards. Languages represented include English, Hungarian, German, Japanese, and French.

Biographical / historical:

Juana de Laban was a notable figure in the dance world, having participated in the field as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, director, critic and scholar. Of Hungarian descent, Juana de Laban von Varalja was born on October 21, 1910 en route from Austria to Switzerland. She was the daughter of Rudolf von Laban, the inventor of the system of Labanotation, a groundbreaking method of notating and interpreting human movement. De Laban studied with the Institute of Choreographics in Berlin and the Royal Hungarian Academy in Budapest. She spent time working for European film companies TERRA and URA and became known for her interpretation of native Hungarian dances. With the start of World War II, de Laban relocated to Texas and eventually received her master's and doctoral degrees in dramatic theory and criticism from Yale University. She is said to be the recipient of the first PhD ever granted in the U.S. for the study of dance criticism. De Laban became director of graduate studies in theater at Baylor University. She went on to serve on the dance faculty at UCLA for eight years, during which time she started a free lecture series, worked to build the library in the area of dance history and aesthetics, and helped Library Special Collections acquire the Ruth St. Denis papers. She was active in many educational and professional organizations, including the Committee on Research in Dance, Sacred Dance Guild of America and the Dallas Theater Center. In the fall of 1971, de Laban moved back to Texas as director of the graduate program in dance at Southern Methodist University. In 1973 she relocated to Temple, Texas where she later died on July 4, 1978. Her publications include Dance Notation (c. 1946).

Acquisition information:
Gift of Judith Alter, 2014.
Processing information:

Processed by Yasmin Damshenas with assistance from Megan Fraser in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), July 2011.

Reprocessed by Sadie Baldwin with assistance from Emily Wittenberg in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), incorporating the accession LSC-2264-2014-11 and substantially revising the arrangement and container list, May 2026.

The collection was reprocessed to replace a previous inventory-style arrangement with a series-based arrangement reflecting the functions and formats of the materials.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in four series and sub-series:

  • Series 1: Publications and printed material
    • Subseries 1.1: Dance periodicals and serial publications
    • Subseries 1.2: Books and pamphlets on dance history and notation
    • Subseries 1.3: Dance programs and souvenir programs
    • Subseries 1.4: Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, and Denishawn printed material
    • Subseries 1.5: Hungarian dance and cultural publications
    • Subseries 1.6: Japanese dance, theater, and cultural publications
  • Series 2: Dance history slides and related cataloging files
    • Sub-series 2.1: Slide card catalog and related files
    • Sub-series 2.2: Dance history slide sequence
    • Sub-series 2.3: Supplemental and unfiled slides
  • Series 3: Photographs
  • Series 4: Writings and research materials

This arrangement was imposed during reprocessing.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Yasmin Damshenas with assistance from Megan Fraser in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), 2011 July; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé. Finding aid for accession LSC-2264-2014-11 prepared by Sadie Baldwin with assistance from Emily Wittenberg in the Center for Primary Research Training (CFPRT), 2026 May.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-05-29 11:29:09 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Juana de Laban papers (Collection 1422). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website