Library & Learning Commons: Classical Ballet: Ballet Resources

Finding Dance Resources in the Library

Use the LibrarySearch to search for dance materials in the catalog, and our A-Z database List to browse electronic databases and collections.

On the third floor you can browse books about dance under these headings:

GV 1580-1799 - Dance
GV 1786.32-1790 - Ballet
GV 1783 - Modern or Expressionist Dance

Print Books and eBooks

These are a few examples of print and eBooks found in our catalog, by doing a search for terms like ballet or classical ballet, defining the dates as between 2000-2023 and selecting books as the resource type.

Eight Female Classical Ballet Variations by Nina Danilova
ISBN: 0190227095
Publication Date: 2016-08-09
From the graceful flutter of Princess Florine at Sleeping Beauty's wedding to the playful jetées in the first act of Giselle, the variation - or short solo work - is one of the key elements of classical ballet.
Elements of Classical Ballet Technique as practiced in the school of the Dance Theatre of Harlem by Karel Shook
ISBN: 0871273632
Publication Date: 2004-12-01
Elements of Classical Ballet Technique as Practiced in the School for the Dance Theatre of Harlem champions the rich heritage of American dance from Fanny Elssler's triumphs to the square dances of the pioneers and on to the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Making Ballet American : modernism before and beyond Balanchine by Andrea Harris
Call Number: 3rd Floor Stacks ; GV1623 .H37 2018
ISBN: 9780199342235
Publication Date: 2017-11-01
This book intervenes in the prevailing historical narrative and re-balances Balanchine's role in dance history by revealing the complex social, cultural, and political forces that actually shaped the construction of American neoclassical ballet.

Databases

Here you can find electronic databases specifically catered to dance. You can find more in our A-Z List, and can also search much of their content using our LibrarySearch.

Dance Online: Dance Studies Collection This link opens in a new window
Presents the historical context of 20th and 21st century dance through 150,000 pages of exclusive photographs, correspondence, magazines, dance notation, and reference material that dissolve the distance between archive and scholar and draw dance students into the library. Includes journals such as Dance and Contact.
Bloomsbury Cultural History This link opens in a new window
Bloomsbury Cultural History is a digital reference tool that provides students and researchers with a set of curated, comprehensive and illustrated reference works within a single platform, alongside an extensive list of eBooks and a wide-ranging image collection.
Alexander Street Press This link opens in a new window
A collection of databases across dance, drama, film, and music including streaming media, scripts, sheet music, and reference texts.
International Encyclopedia of Dance This link opens in a new window
Information on all forms of dance and choreography.
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance This link opens in a new window
Over 570 full-text scholarly and industry performing arts journals and books. Covers ballet, cinema, comedy, dance, drama, film, mime, opera, puppetry, and theatre.
Music and Dance Online This link opens in a new window
Delivers the largest, most diverse catalog of music content in the world for students, scholars, and patrons of the arts. The multimedia resource features works from thousands of respected partners, covers hundreds of genres from alternative to zydeco and from alternative dance to operatic arias, and encompasses a wide range of content formats - including scores, reference, and high definition audio and video.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Full text coverage of more than 160 international performing arts periodicals, covering dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Jerome Robbins Dance Divison (NYPL) This link opens in a new window
The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library is the largest and most comprehensive archive in the world devoted to the documentation of dance. Chronicling the art of dance in all its manifestations—ballet, ethnic, modern, social, and folk—the division is much more than a library in the usual sense of the word.
American Ballet Theatre's Ballet Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Dictionary of terms relating to and the performance of ballet, made available by the American Ballet Theatre.

How to Request Interlibrary Loans

Choose either of the options below to submit a request:

Fill out the ILL request form directly based on item type.
Check WorldCat for the item you need; in the item record, use the Request Item button to submit your ILL Request.

Consider making a purchase request

If you think that we should have the item in our permanent collection, please let us know by filling out our Purchase Request Form.