Eva Anderson's Baltimore Dance Theater Collection

Dublin Core

Title

Subject

Maryland--Baltimore.

Maryland--Howard County

Dance.

Modern dance.

African American dancers

Women

Artists

Dancers

African American business enterprises

Description

Eva Anderson's Baltimore Dance Theater Collection (ca. 1970-2016) highlights the history of Baltimore’s longest-running professional Dance Company, the Baltimore Dance Theater.

The complete Eva Anderson's Baltimore Dance Theater Collection at the University of Baltimore consists of 18 linear feet of photographic prints, organizational records, scapbooks, and audiovisual materials which are described in the collection database. From the complete archival collection, 36 items have been selected for this this online collection and are described in 25 metadata records in this online collection.

The Baltimore Dance Theatre was established in 1975 by dancers Orville Johnson and Maria Broom. The company was originally developed as a community arts program for students at Dunbar High School. In 1977, Eva Anderson took over the role of Artistic Director from Orville Johnson. In 1981, the company was incorporated as the non-profit Eva Anderson Dancers, Ltd. The company subsequently moved from Baltimore to Columbia, Maryland, where it took up residency at the Howard County Arts Council. The company performed at the Howard County Arts Council as well as at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The company toured domestically throughout Maryland as well as in Virginia, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and toured internationally to Germany, Austria, and Italy.

According to the Eva Anderson Dancers Ltd. 2004-2005 season program, the mission of Eva Anderson Dancers, Ltd. was to create and perpetuate American dance with a special emphasis African-American dance forms. The company’s repertoire included classical modern, classical ballet and classical African-American dance forms. It performed choreography by Eva Anderson and a variety of choreographers and composers. Members of the company took part in residencies in schools and taught public classes. Eva Anderson Dancers, Ltd. offered apprenticeship training for young professionals and developed performance opportunities for professional dance artists in Maryland.

Eva Anderson’s Baltimore Dance Theater provided a legacy of tradition and culture for many dancers in the city, who today consider it a springboard to their careers in modern dance. With funding from the Cultural Arts Program and other grants the ensemble provided opportunities for people living in underserved communities to train, display talents, and travel the world. Later, the dance theater moved to Howard County and continued to entertain the community.

Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Photo Department including the Chair Nate Larson, and Tech Manager Jefferson Steele, and MICA's Film Professor Allen Moore, for their assistance to Deyane Moses while she was digitizing collection materials for this project. We also thank MICA's Friends of Photo Grant for their assistance to Deyane with the exhibition printing.

Creator

Digital collection created by Deyane Moses (intern 2018-2019)

Source

Eva Anderson's Baltimore Dance Theater Collection (R0163-BDT), the Special Collections and Archives, University of Baltimore.

Publisher

Special Collections and Archives, University of Baltimore.

Date

circa 1970-2016

Rights

Use of the images in this digital collection/exhibit is governed by U.S. copyright law. The University of Baltimore Special Collections and Archives makes digital surrogates of collections accessible if they are in the public domain, the rights are owned by the University of Baltimore, the Special Collections and Archives has permission to make them accessible, or there are no known restrictions on use. Due to the nature of archival collections, rights information is not always discernible. The Special Collections and Archives is eager to hear from any rights owners wishing to provide accurate information. Upon request, material will be removed from view while a rights issue is addressed. Contact the Special Collections and Archives for more information regarding this image.