Research Catalog

Title

Selma Jeanne Cohen International Encyclopedia of Dance records.

Author

Cohen, Selma Jeanne, 1920-2005.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Cohen, Selma Jeanne, 1920-2005.
• Carter, Curtis L.
• Kirstein, Lincoln, 1907-1996.
• Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Dance Perspectives Foundation.
• International Theatre Institute. German Center.
• Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Oxford University Press.
• University of California Press.

Description

3.5 linear feet (7 boxes)

Summary

The Selma Jeanne Cohen International Encyclopedia of Dance records contain materials maintained by Cohen, which document the encyclopedia from its inception as a project of the Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. until 1994, when it was taken over by the Oxford University Press.

Uniform Title

International encyclopedia of dance.

Subjects

• Charles Scribner's Sons
• International encyclopedia of dance > Correspondence
• Financial records
• University of California Press
• Correspondence
• Minutes
• Macmillan Publishing Company
• Oxford University Press
• Editors
• Dance > Encyclopedias
• Dance Perspectives Foundation Correspondence
• Ballet > Encyclopedias
• Encyclopedias and dictionaries > Publishing

Genre/Form

• Correspondence.
• Financial records.
• Minutes.

Location of Other Archival Materials (note)

• Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Biography (note)

• The reference book, International Encyclopedia of Dance (IED), initially began as a proposal raised separately at the 1974 Dance Critics Association conference by both Selma Jeanne Cohen and Arlene Croce.

Indexes/Finding Aids (note)

• Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Call Number

(S) *MGZMD 151

OCLC

NYPG05-A10146

Author

Cohen, Selma Jeanne, 1920-2005.

Title

Selma Jeanne Cohen International Encyclopedia of Dance records.

Biography

The reference book, International Encyclopedia of Dance (IED), initially began as a proposal raised separately at the 1974 Dance Critics Association conference by both Selma Jeanne Cohen and Arlene Croce. A committee chaired by Cohen met in New York soon after the conference and began planning for a publication that would attempt to address the need for a comprehensive scholarly encyclopedia for the field of dance. The project gained momentum in 1976 when Cohen's Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. (DPF) received a National Endowment of the Arts (NEH) grant to help fund a planning conference of leading dance scholars, at which Lincoln Kirstein gave the keynote address. The IED was planned as a multivolume work, international in scope, that would cover all forms of dance in all countries of the world. After being awarded a second NEH grant, the DPF undertook full sponsorship of the IED in 1977 and formed an editorial board, of which Cohen became the editor-in-chief. A highly complex undertaking with a troubled publication history, the encyclopedia's publication date would be delayed several times. The original publisher in 1981 was to be Charles Scribner's Sons, which was sold to the Macmillan Publishing Company in 1986. Some of the IED manuscript and editorial correspondence were lost during the transition from Scribner's to Macmillan. By 1987, the board had become dissatisfied with the handling of the project and the agreement with the publisher was terminated. The University of California Press agreed to take on the publication in 1988. While work progressed steadily, budget cuts in the California university system in 1993 eventually forced the Press to drop the project. Ultimately, the IED would be realized when the Oxford University Press agreed to take over in 1994. Manuscripts were revised, additional articles were commissioned, and a more rigorous style scheme was adopted. With this expansion, along with the addition of numerous illustrations, the IED finally appeared as as a six volume set in in 1998.

Location of Other Archival Materials

See also the Selma Jeanne Cohen papers ((S) *MGZMD 145), the Selma Jeanne Cohen papers relating to Dance Perspectives ((S) *MGZMD 56), and the Selma Jeanne Cohen papers relating to teaching and writing projects ((S) *MGZMD 62) in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Indexes

Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Connect to:

Request Access to Special Collections (Dance Division) material

Finding Aid

Occupation

Editors.

Added Author

Cohen, Selma Jeanne, 1920-2005.

Carter, Curtis L.

Kirstein, Lincoln, 1907-1996.

Charles Scribner's Sons.

Dance Perspectives Foundation.

International Theatre Institute. German Center.

Macmillan Publishing Company.

Oxford University Press.

University of California Press.

Added Title

International encyclopedia of dance.

Research Call Number

(S) *MGZMD 151