Description
The collection consists of costumes, manuscripts, programs, photographs, and clippings pertaining to choreographer/dancer
Saida Gerrard from the 1930s through the 1970s.
Background
Saida Gerrard was a performer, choreographer, student, and teacher of modern dance. Born in 1913, she grew up in Toronto,
Canada in a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. Her parents were amateur musicians who exposed her to music and dance at
an early age. As a child, she studied music and dance at the Hambourg Conservatory of Music in Toronto and at the Toronto
Conservatory of Music, including Dalcroze Eurythmics with Madeleine Boss Lasserre. She would go on to study dance and perform
with some of the greatest individuals in modern dance, including Vilzak-Scholler, Margaret Craske, Hanya Holm, Louis Horst,
Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Martha Graham, Fe Alf, Amy Sternberg, and Benjamin Zemach.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.