Dance Archives

Jack Mitchell

GME represents the collection of Jack Mitchell, who photographed numerous figures in the dance world over the course of his half-century professional career. His work frequently appeared in newspapers as well as on the covers of major magazines. In the 1960s, The New York Times Arts and Leisure editor Seymour Peck and photo editor Lonnie Schlein became aware of Mitchell’s work and began giving him major freelance assignments.

His portraiture, lighting skill, and ability to capture performers in what he termed “moving stills” made him one of the most important dance photographers of the 20th century. In addition to photographing more than 160 covers of Dance Magazine, he documented such acclaimed choreographers and performers as Martha Graham, Ann Reinking, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Louis Falco, Bill T. Jones, Arnie Zane, Judith Jamison, and Rudolf Nureyev. He was the official photographer of the American Ballet Theater for ten years and photographed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater over the course of three decades.

GME’s Fine Arts Curator David Deitch notes: “Mitchell was a keen observer of the lines and contours of individual physiques and how they moved in space. He was an organizer who planned each session beforehand and produced images in his small studio that often challenged the laws of gravity and the constraints of the actual physical environment."

The Estate of Jack Mitchell is exclusively represented by Gartenberg Media Enterprises, Inc. for placement of the archive and exhibition of his work. Please contact GME’s Fine Arts Curator, David Deitch for all inquiries related to acquisition of the Jack Mitchell archive, for exhibitions of his work, or for more information on Mitchell and his career.

Trisha Brown

When Brown retired as head of her company, she appointed longtime members Diane Madden and Carolyn Lucas as Associate Artistic Directors. Madden and Lucas were charged with developing, deepening and expanding the company’s educational initiatives; presenting Brown’s dances in a variety of spaces; and treating the company’s archive as a living organism to be used to better understand Brown’s work in particular, and dance in general.

The archive includes performance and rehearsal footage, sets, costumes, Brown’s notebooks, and scores by some of the pre-eminent artists of the era. Jon Gartenberg has worked as a consultant with Executive Director Barbara Dufty and Archive Director Cori Olinghouse to help place Trisha Brown’s archive. This led, in September 2020, to the archive being placed with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Read the article in The New York Times, here.

Cathy Weis

The Cathy Weis Archive contains hundreds of hours of footage of Weis’ work as a performance videographer in New York City from 1983 through the present day. Weis approaches her documentary work with a choreographer’s eye, capturing not merely the spatial records for the purpose of
restaging the choreography, but the nuances of performance usually lost in conventional recording. Documenting many rare and improvisational performances by emerging and established artists, as well as discussions, informal gatherings, and outdoor scenes, Weis has produced an archive that is a unique record of dance and performance from an eclectic and dynamic period in history. The archive is not only an invaluable resource for the creative processes of dancers, performers, and artists, but also for dance historians and educators.

Preserving and cataloguing the holdings of the archive is a major and ongoing initiative of Cathy Weis Projects. With the consent of the artists represented, excerpts will ultimately be made accessible to artists, performers, students, scholars, and critics all over the world. Weis’ latest creative project, Look Into the Past with Madame Xenogamy, is an initial way the public can engage with some of the archive’s rare and historic footage.

Recognizing a critical need for the preservation of the tapes, in early 2003, Weis engaged Gartenberg Media Enterprises. With GME’s help, Weis developed a customized and comprehensive catalogue with standardized nomenclature for the diverse camera positions and points of view represented in the recorded imagery, and of all creative, intellectual, and technological information related to each work. The digitization and cataloging of the archive’s holdings remains an ongoing project.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell, who was the first African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet, and who believed that “ballet belongs to everyone.” Dance Theatre of Harlem is recognized as the first African-American classical ballet company and the first major dance company to prioritize Black dancers. Notable performers who have trained with Dance Theatre of Harlem include Karen KB Brown, Michaela DePrince, Virginia Johnson, Mel Tomlinson, Eric Underwood, Stephanie Dabney, and current Artistic Director, Robert Garland.

An 18-member, multi-ethnic company, Dance Theatre of Harlem tours nationally and internationally to present a repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical pieces, and innovative contemporary works. GME was honored to engage with Dance Theatre of Harlem from November 2023 to February 2024 as consultants for their extensive photography collection, including images and ephemera pertaining to Arthur Mitchell himself.

Please contact info@gartenbergmedia.com for more information about these archives.