The UK & NI Dance Archive Collections Database
Dance archives play a crucial role in preserving the historical record of dance, housing materials used to reflect, revive, study, and analyse this art form. However, with declining physical visitor numbers, it is essential to explore how users access and utilise this knowledge digitally. Therefore, the doctoral research project investigated the future development of online dance archive resources by examining the information-seeking behaviour's of dance researchers and the working practices of dance archivists. This dataset was compiled between 2018-2020 as survey the landscape of dance archives and to contextualise one of the study's participant sample: dance archivists. As a result a comprehensive UK dance archive collection database was compiled using publicly available online sources. The UK Theatre Collections Database (Association of Performing Arts Collections, 2009) served as the initial foundation in compiling this dataset. The dataset compiled details of archives across the UK which hold dance, or dance-related, collections, material or items. It provides details inclusive of the archive name and geographical location. Additionally, it surveys dance archives' catalogue, detailing whether catalogues can be found online or offline and which software the dance archive has used to produce the catalogue. This information was gathered both from publicly information and further investigated through correspondences with the dance archives via email. Moreover, the dataset provides a URL link to the search tool provided by the dance archive online which users can use to search the archive for information, it also lists metadata and interface affordances and outlines particular collections, material or items related to dance which can be found using the search tool[1]. The subsequent development and extension of this list revealed that over sixty archives within the UK and Northern Ireland contain dance or dance-related collections or materials. This newly compiled database provided a statistical understanding of dance archives that had previously been unavailable. Furthermore, it facilitated an informed decision regarding the recruitment pool of dance archivists for the study. This dataset supports future research by providing a statistical understanding of dance archives within the UK and NI.
[1] A basic search for words such as ‘dance’ or ‘performance’ were used to locate material relating to dance within the archive searching facilities. This forms the listed dance, or dance-related collections value within the dataset.