Finding Aid for the Juana de Laban papers, 1830-1975
Processed by Yasmin Damshenas in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Fraser,
July 2011; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
© 2011
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Juana de Laban papers
Date (inclusive): 1830-1975
Collection number: 1422
Creator:
Juana de Laban, 1910-1978
Extent:
2 boxes (2.4 linear ft.)
Abstract: Juana de Laban (1910-1978) was the director of graduate studies in theater at Baylor University, a distinguished professor
at the University of Wisconsin, and served on the dance faculty at UCLA for nearly a decade. She was active in many educational
and professional organizations, including the Sacred Dance Guild of America. The collection consists of books, pamphlets,
dance programs, magazines and journals, as well as correspondence, typed drafts and carbon copies, photographs, clippings,
notes, and sketches.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary 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.
Processing Note
Processed by Yasmin Damshenas in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Fraser,
July 2011.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Juana de Laban papers (Collection 1422). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
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).
Scope and Content
Collection consists of books, pamphlets, dance programs, magazines and journals, as well as correspondence, typed drafts and
carbon copies, photographs, clippings, notes, and sketches. Languages in this collection include English, Hungarian, German,
Japanese and French.
Organization and Arrangement
Materials are organized into two boxes. Box 1 contains publications. Box 2 contains additional publications, as well as, photographs,
manuscripts, notes, clippings, and drawings.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Laban, Juana de, 1910-1978--Archives.
Dance teachers--United States--Archival resources.
Box 1
"All that strange & mysterious folk." Dance Perspectives 16.1, no.61.
Box 1
Anderson, Jack (ed.). "Dance, the Dancer, and the Poem: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Poems." Dance Perspectives, no.
52
(Winter 1972).
Box 1
Aschengreen, Erik. "Beautiful Danger." Dance Perspectives, no.58
(Summer 1974).
Box 1
Baron, John H. "Les Fees des Forests de S. Germain Ballet de Cour, 1625."
Dance Perspectives 16.2, no.62
(1975).
Box 1
Beiswanger, George. "Three Essays in Dance Aesthetics."
Dance Perspectives, no.55
(Autumn 1973).
Box 1
Blasis, M.
Manuel complet de la danse. [France]: Librairie Encyclopedique
1830.
Box 1
Blass, Ernst.
Das Wesen der neuen Tanzkunst. Weimar: Erich Lichtenstein Verlag
1921.
Box 1
Blum, Odette. "Dance in Ghana."
Dance Perspectives, no. 56
(Winter 1973).
Box 1
Books & Scores from the Bureau. New York: Dance Notation Bureau
[n.d.]
Box 1
Dance Magazine 38, no.8
(August 1964).
Box 1
Dancers of Bali. New York: Lou Dunetz and Paul Lovett Publishers
[n.d.]
Box 1
Duncan, Irma.
Isadora Duncan: Pioneer in the Art of Dance. New York: New York Public Library
1959.
Box 1
First Lady of the Dance. Los Angeles: Burns
[n.d.]
Box 1
Florenz, Karl.
Japanische Dramen: Terakoya und Asagao. Leipzig: C.F. Amelangs Verlag
[n.d.]
Box 1
Gauguin, Paul.
Noa Noa. Berlin: Verlag von Bruno Cassirer
[n.d.]
Box 1
János, Arany.
Összes kÖltői művei. Budapest: Franklin-Tarsut
[n.d.]
Box 1
Kaposi, Edit (ed.).
Táncművészeti Értesítő. Budapest: A Magyar Táncművészek SzÖvetségének [The Hungarian Dancers Association].Vol. 1.
1966.
Box 1
Kaposi, Edit (ed.).
Táncművészeti Értesítő. Budapest: A Magyar Táncművészek SzÖvetségének [The Hungarian Dancers Association].Vol. 2.
1966.
Box 1
Kaposi, Edit (ed.).
Táncművészeti értesítő. Budapest: A Magyar Táncművészek SzÖvetségének [The Hungarian Dancers Association].Vol. 2.
1968.
Box 1
Kirstein, Lincoln. "Entries from an Early Diary."
Dance Perspectives, no. 54
(Spring 1974).
Box 1
Koegler, Horst. "In the Shadow of the Swastika."
Dance Perspectives, no. 57
(Spring 1974).
Box 1
de Laban, Juana. "Dance Notation."
Dance Index 5, no. 4-5 (1946). New York: Dance Index-Ballet Caravan.
Scope and Content Note
(Has a sheet of notes inserted. This issue also includes an article by Juana de Laban's father, Rudolf von Laban.)
Box 1
Laban, Rudolf.
Choreutics. London: Macdonald and Evans
1966.
Box 1
Leabo, Karl (ed.).
Martha Graham Dance Company. New York: The Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance
[ca. 1974].
Box 1
Morgan, Barbara.
Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce
1941.
Box 1
New York City Ballet Program. New York: New York Center of Music & Drama
1957.
Box 1
New York City Ballet Program. [s.l.]: [s.n.]
[n.d.]
Box 1
Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris in Carmen and Other Ballets. New York: Benj. Weitzner
[n.d.]
Box 1
Stepanov, V.I.
Alphabet of Movements. Cambridge: Golden Head Press
1958.
Note
(Number 6 of 175 copies printed for sale in 1958)
Box 1
Schlundt, Christena, L.
Ruth St. Denis & Ted Shawn. New York: New York Public Library
1962.
Box 1
Schlundt, Christena L.
Ted Shawn and his men dancers. New York: New York Public Library
1967.
Scope and Content Note
(Contains letter from Schlundt to de Laban, dated October 18, 1963.)
Box 1
Shawn, Ted.
Ruth St. Denis: Pioneer & Prophet, Volumes I and II. San Francisco: John Henry Nash
1920.
Note
(This is the printer's copy, only 350 copies were printed.)
Box 1
Van Tuyl, Marian.
Extensions of Dance. San Francisco: Impulse Publications
1969/1970.
Box 1
Williams, Peter (ed.).
London's Festival Ballet. New York: Artcraft Litho and Printing Co., Inc.
[n.d.]
Box 2, Folder 1
Photograph of Ruth St. Denis.
Box 2, Folder 2
"Magyar Dances" aka "Hungarian Dances" draft and notes by Juana de Laban.
Scope and Content Note
(In English, Hungarian and German, includes sketch, dance notations, glossary, discography for records, correspondence, press
clippings, musical scores, flyers, book titled Magyar Táncok from ca. 1933)
Box 2, Folder 3
Photographs of Juana de Laban at the UCLA Artist Series
Physical Description: (3 photographs in total)
Box 2, Folder 4
Photographs of Juana de Laban at UCLA
Physical Description: (3 photographs in total)
Box 2, Folder 5
Series of photographs by John Snyder of dancers performing and rehearsing
Physical Description: (15 photographs in total)
Box 2
The Denishawn Magazine: A Quarterly Review Devoted to the Art of Dance. New York: The Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing, vol. 1, no. 1.
[n.d.]
Physical Description: (autographed photograph of Ruth St. Denis inserted)
Box 2
The Denishawn Magazine: A Quarterly Review Devoted to the Art of Dance. New York: The Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing, vol. 1, no. 1.
[n.d.]
Physical Description: (autographed photograph of Ruth St. Denis inserted)
Box 2
The Denishawn Magazine: A Quarterly Review Devoted to the Art of Dance. New York: The Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing, vol. 1, no. 2.
[n.d.]
Box 2
The Denishawn Magazine: A Quarterly Review Devoted to the Art of Dance. New York: The Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing, vol. 1, no. 3
(Spring 1925).
Box 2
The Denishawn Magazine: A Quarterly Review Devoted to the Art of Dance. New York: The Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing, vol. 1, no. 4
(Summer 1925).
Box 2
The Denishawn Magazine: A Quarterly Review Devoted to the Art of Dance. New York: The Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing, vol. 1, no. 4
(Summer 1925).
Box 2
Die Elizabeth Duncan-Schule. Jena, Germany: Eugen Diederichs
1912.
Physical Description: (Cover detached.)
Box 2
Gustáv, Oláh and Szántó Ferenc (eds.).
Magyar Balletek. Budapest: Az Officina Nyomda
[n.d.]
Note
(Book on Hungarian ballet written in Hungarian, German, French, Italian and English.)
Box 2
GyÖrgy, Martin.
SárkÖzi-Dunamenti Motivumtár Melléklet. Budapest: Népm#x00FC;velési Intézet
1964.
Box 2
GyÖrgy, Martin.
A SárkÖzi-Dunamenti Táncok Motivumkincse. Budapest: Népm#x00FC;velési Intézet
1964.
Scope and Content Note
(Detailed table of contents typed up in German inserted between pages 46-47.)
Box 2
Kaposi, Edit (ed.).
A Magyar Táncművészet Hete: Szakmai Vitáirol Készült JegyzőkÖnyv. Budapest: [s.n.]
1968.
Box 2
Kuni, Masami.
Buyo. Tokyo: Taiiku no Kagakusha
1954.
Scope and Content Note
(Black and white photo of dance school instructors inserted in book; book is a gift from the author, Masami Kuni.)
Box 2
Kuni, Masami.
Buyo gaisetsu. Tokyo: Kuni Buyo Kenkyujo
1948.
Note
(Book is a gift from Masami Kuni.)
Box 2
Kuni, Masami.
Ugoki no rizumu. Tokyo: Ban'yusha
1954.
Note
(Book is a gift from Masami Kuni.)
Box 2
Matsuoka, Eikyu.
Zuroku emakimono shoshaku. Tokyo: Morie Shoten
1926.
Box 2
Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and Their Denishawn Dancers Souvenir Program. [s.l.]: [s.n.]
[ca. 1927].
Box 2
Szentpál, Mária (ed.).
A Kultúrverseny Legszebb Táncai és Dalai. Budapest: Zeneműkiadó Vállalat
1952.
Box 2
Szentpál, Mária (ed.).
Pusztafalutól Karcsáig Abaújmegyei Táncok és Dalok. Budapest: Zeneműkiadó Vállalat
1953.
Box 2
Tänze von Anna Pawlowa im Bilde. Dresden: Carl Reissner Verlag
1931.
Scope and Content Note
(Includes press clippings inserted in between book pages.)
