Partner dancing has been shaped by generations of dancers, musicians, teachers, clubs, ballrooms, events, communities, and cultures.
Finding Dance is collecting credible archives and historical resources that preserve those stories and make them easier to discover.
This is a growing resource. We are starting with established libraries, museums, foundations, archives, and dance organizations and will continue adding collections over time.
Finding Dance links to the original institutions and organizations responsible for these collections. Historical interpretation can vary between sources.
Finding Dance is actively building this resource library. Know of a credible archive, historical collection, oral-history project, museum, or preservation organization that should be included?
Major Dance Archives
Library of Congress — An American Ballroom Companion
Institution: Library of Congress
A major digital collection of more than 200 historical social-dance manuals spanning several centuries. The collection includes ballroom and social-dance instruction, etiquette, dance history, notation, related writings, and historical demonstrations.
Social Dance
Ballroom
Historical Manuals
Digital Archive
Library of Congress — American Folklife Center Dance Resources
Institution: Library of Congress
A research guide to dance traditions preserved within the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, including social, regional, immigrant, and community dance traditions.
Cultural History
Social Dance
Folklore
Research
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Institution: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
One of the world’s largest dance archives, preserving books, manuscripts, photographs, programs, audio recordings, moving images, oral histories, and other documentation covering dance in many forms.
Major Archive
Books
Video
Audio
Photography
Dance Oral History Project
Institution: New York Public Library — Jerome Robbins Dance Division
A long-running oral-history project documenting the lives and experiences of dancers, teachers, choreographers, producers, and other figures across the dance world.
Oral History
Interviews
Dance History
Ballroom Dance Oral History Collection
Institution: New York Public Library — Jerome Robbins Dance Division
A focused oral-history collection featuring professional and amateur dancers from New York’s ballroom community discussing their training, careers, competitions, and experiences in ballroom dance.
Ballroom
Oral History
Interviews
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive
Institution: Jacob’s Pillow
A digital collection of dance performances filmed at Jacob’s Pillow from the 1930s to today, along with historical photographs, programs, essays, exhibits, and podcasts.
Video Archive
Performance History
Digital Collection
Smithsonian — Social Dance Film Collection
Institution: National Museum of American History
Historic moving-image material documenting a range of American social-dance traditions, including early Cakewalk, Swing, Shag, Lindy Hop, and related forms.
Social Dance
Historic Film
American Dance
Swing & Lindy Hop
Pacific Swing Dance Archive
Organization: Pacific Swing Dance Foundation
A preservation project dedicated to Swing dance history. Its collections include interviews, photographs, video, audio, documents, artifacts, important places, events, organizations, and influential people.
Swing
West Coast Swing
Balboa
Lindy Hop
Archive
Pacific Swing Dance Archive — Living History
Organization: Pacific Swing Dance Foundation
An oral-history project documenting original and second-generation Swing dancers through extended recorded interviews.
Swing
Oral History
Interviews
Preservation
Frankie Manning Foundation Archival Resources
Organization: Frankie Manning Foundation
Historical material focused on Frankie Manning, Lindy Hop, the Savoy Ballroom, and the dancers who shaped early Lindy Hop. Resources include original-dancer profiles, historic video, photographs, biographies, and online exhibits.
Lindy Hop
Savoy Ballroom
Swing
Historical Video
Smithsonian — Historic Lindy Hop Film
Institution: Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Historic film material documenting Lindy Hop and Swing, including footage connected to George ‘Shorty’ Snowden, the Savoy Ballroom, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, Frankie Manning, and other early Swing dancers.
Lindy Hop
Historic Film
Swing
Savoy Ballroom
Norma Miller Oral History
Institution: Library of Congress
An oral-history interview with Norma Miller covering her childhood in Harlem, dancing at the Savoy Ballroom, Lindy Hop competitions, Frankie Manning, film appearances, and her career.
Lindy Hop
Oral History
Savoy Ballroom
World Swing Dance Council — Swing History
Organization: World Swing Dance Council
A concise overview of Swing and West Coast Swing history, including connections between Lindy Hop, the Savoy Ballroom, regional Swing styles, and the development of West Coast Swing.
West Coast Swing
Swing
History
Country Dance History
UCWDC History
Organization: United Country Western Dance Council
Historical material documenting the growth of organized Country Western dance and the development of UCWDC beginning in the late 1980s.
Country Dance
Country Western
Competition History
UCWDC Hall of Fame
Organization: United Country Western Dance Council
A biographical collection recognizing dancers, teachers, organizers, and others whose work helped shape Country dance.
Country Dance
People
Hall of Fame
Biographies
UCWDC Pioneers
Organization: United Country Western Dance Council
A growing record of individuals who helped establish and spread Country dancing in different regions beginning before and during the growth of organized Country competition.
Country Dance
Pioneers
Biographies
History
Latin & Tango History
UNESCO — Tango
Institution: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
UNESCO’s cultural record of the Argentine and Uruguayan Tango tradition, documenting its roots in Buenos Aires and Montevideo and its importance as music, dance, poetry, and cultural identity.
Argentine Tango
Uruguay
Argentina
Cultural Heritage
Smithsonian — ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa
Institution: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino
A bilingual Smithsonian exhibition tracing Salsa from its Afro-Cuban roots through its development in New York and the United States using instruments, recordings, clothing, photographs, memorabilia, and other historical objects.
Salsa
Latin Music
Cultural History
Smithsonian
Smithsonian — Salsa’s Roots
Institution: National Museum of the American Latino
A focused historical resource exploring Salsa’s Afro-Cuban musical roots, clave, Cuban son and rumba, and the role of Puerto Rican musicians in the development of Salsa in the United States.
Salsa
Afro-Cuban
Puerto Rican
Music History
Smithsonian Folkways — Dominican Republic Collection
Institution: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
A historical collection of recordings and cultural material from the Dominican Republic, including Bachata, Merengue, son, religious music, and other Dominican traditions.
Bachata
Merengue
Dominican Republic
Music History
History Got You Curious?
Learn where the dances came from. Then find someone who can teach you where they’re going.