Map of Dance
Heritage in Spain
We hereby present the Map of Dance Heritage in Spain standing by the CDAEM’s commitment to produce resources favouring the task of investigation and dissemination of the performing arts. In this case, we present a work that makes available to everyone a wide directory of locations of documentary sources related to dance updating the first edition published in 2015 (though the mere concept of this new Map implies that the information is updated in step with the databases growth. Therefore, this resource is constantly growing).
Javier de Dios López
Director of CDAEM
October 2021
The new edition of the Map of Dance Heritage in Spain already offers a very significant increase of the number of sources as well as the information comprised: 173 institutions instead of the 110 of the first edition; 900 bibliographic references linked to archives and institutions, thus tripling the 330 references of the previous edition; and 250 records of general bibliography that significantly increase the 130 of the first Map.
Any researcher, professional, student, teacher or enthusiast of dance who becomes interested in the Map will find the location of archives, libraries, research and documentation centers, museums and collections, sound archives and other institutions housing a wide typology of documents across the country. He will find the necessary information on their locations and collections with the new possibility of refining the searches due to a wider scope of filters, and find out in detail personal or institutional legacies and collections. It means that the upgraded versatility of the Map of Dance Heritage in Spain, as occurred with the new edition of the Map of Music Heritage in Spain, also edited by the Centre, allows a wider consultation and, above all, the adaptation of the searches to the needs of the user due to its greater interactivity.
Thus, we not only intend to continue working in the dissemination of dance according to the objectives and commitments of our documentation center, but also adding a landmark on the way of the resources that guide on the conservation and dissemination of the musical and dance heritage of our country. This new Map becomes part of the already large set of publications that can be read and consulted in our site cdaem.mcu.es.
I would like to end this brief presentation by showing the gratitude of the CDAEM’s team to the people and institutions that provided information about the contents and also invite you to visit the Map to discover click by click the rich and enormous heritage of dance scattered in the different regions of our country.
Dance as heritage
The directories and catalogues of sources for research are common to various disciplines. A close example is the project RISM (International Catalog of Musical Sources) that for almost 65 years develops its activities -that is, `establishes what exists and where it is kept’- in almost 40 countries across the world. In the case of dance, the directories that comprise the units of information housing the sources for the study of choreology have suffered a limited and scattered development. In some countries, they are specialized in very specific aspects and genres, and in others ones, include dance in general catalogues of the performing arts. The same can be said of museums and collections. Within the ICOM (International Council of Museums) different international committees have been created, some specialized as the CIMCIM (Comité International des Musées et Collections d'Instruments et de Musique), but none of them dedicated to dance, not even within an organization associated to the SIBMAS (International Association of Libraries and Museums of Performing Arts) dance is seen in an independent manner, despite the fact that one of its significant founders is the Museum of Dance of Stockholm.
In our country no initiatives have been put in place so far, though some state bodies, like the own INAEM, mentions dance as a heritage that must be preserved and disseminated. Also, it seems paradoxical the pretension of ‘appropriating’ something as ephemeral as dance, but as any artistic and human activity, it can generate certain documents –or be expressed in them- that allow its study, and sometimes, its recovery. The need to establish where to find the sources for its study has encouraged us –as a task common to a specialized resource center- to carry out this first edition of the Map of dance heritage in Spain based on our databases.
The result is a directory of 110 records comprising archives, libraries, documentation centers and museums, which collections keep documents and pieces related to dance. Not only personal fonds of dancers and choreographers are included, some of them held in great heritage libraries, but also certain archives housing documents of significant importance. Furthermore, the directory comprises all kind of dance, such as documents including notations and descriptions of court dances of the 16th and 17th centuries, or those regarding academic dance: contemporary dance, oral tradition dance, social dance, ritual dance, flamenco and Spanish dance. With respect to the typologies, we have taken into account any kind of pieces in specialized or general museums –like the ethnologic ones- and those considered as primary documents: manuscripts, photographs, video recordings, etc. For obvious reasons, publications have been excluded.
Lastly, we would like to thank all people and institutions that have generously and enthusiastically collaborated in this task, especially those professionals of documentation, of dance, as well as the specialized researchers for their information and suggestions. All of us have been conscious of the challenge to produce a new tool available to those who consider dance as a valuable heritage for our culture.
Antonio Álvarez Cañibano Director of the Music and Dance Documentation Center November 2014 [1st Edition Presentation]
For the production of the Map we have taken into account the following types of institutions: archives, libraries, documentation and research centers sound archives with a heritage fonds, collections and museums, provided that they have an open access to the public and/or the researchers.
The information is visually provided in the Map with markers of various colours that show the location of the different type of institutions:
Besides a direct access by browsing through the map and clicking on the shortcut icons, you can go to the content through a search engine that retrieves information for any word/any field. You can also refine the search by applying filters like type of institution, type of content, or type of legacy.
The result of the searches can be viewed and printed in List mode, or directly on the map, where, when zooming in, appears an increase of markers that show the location of every institution. By clicking on them you can firstly access a basic information of the location and its Record, including the following information:
Information is complemented by a selection of general bibliography about Dance heritage in Spain, specially focused on research and sources.
In order to search information you can use two different systems
Simple Search
In order to do a simple search you should insert the criteria in the field and click on the Search button.
The system will execute a documental type search, this means that the search will use all the Sites main fields for looking inside.
The criteria will be splited in separated words.
SIn order to avoid this word splitting, because you want to use an exact phrase, you should quote the criteria using double quotes .
For example:
In anycase the following does not matters:
Advanced Search
The Advanced Search let you identify the field that should be used in the process.
The sintax is like fieldname=fieldvalue.
In this way:
The available fieldnames list is:
You can use a quoted criteria as a fieldvalue.
For example:
