In 1975, Battle founded Art of Black Dance and Music, the only minority woman-owned nonprofit arts education organization in New England. The mission of Art of Black Dance and Music was to preserve African-rooted heritage through research, instruction, and performance. After receiving an MA in Education from Cambridge College in 1984, Battle shifted the focus of Art of Black Dance and Music towards arts education in schools. The company performed at festivals across the United States, organized and led study tours abroad, and offered workshops and classes to students at all levels. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Battle studied and documented dance in a variety of countries. She filmed formal and informal dancing, incorporating her research into her curricula and teaching in Boston-area schools. The collection focuses on Art of Black Dance and Music, including curricula, programs, awards, newsletters, photographs, and videos.

Bernstein is a professor of History, African American Studies, and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. Her research focuses include childhood, theater and performance, and race in the United States. Her collection includes documents and programs from lesbian organizations and queer theater productions, as well as audiotapes and phonograph records featuring lesbian comedians.

Actress, entertainer, professional wrestler, roller derby skater, and fetish sex performer, Deanna Booher (aka Queen Kong, Matilda the Hun, Queen Adrena, and Juicy Joy) grew up in Lake Arrowhead, California. Her 42-year-long marriage was an open one, and she and her husband developed a telephone sex business catering to an individual's taste. She skated for five years with roller derby teams such as the Chicago Hawks and the Texas Outlaws, and was on numerous game shows including The Gong Show, which she co-hosted for 14 episodes. At 6' 4" she made her career mud wrestling, wrestling bears, and in the 1980s was a leading figure in the all-female wrestling show Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. She created and marketed numerous sex fetish videos and is the author of Glamazon Queen Kong: My Life of Glitter, Guts, and Glory. The collection includes photographs, publicity, fan correspondence, a diary, and other materials.

Cogswell is an activist, artist, and writer. She studied English and Art at Transylvania University before moving to Cincinnati, where she wrote poems, created art, and directed and performed performance works throughout the city. She moved to New York City to attend the Performance Studies Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988, and held odd jobs while continuing to write and develop performance art works. She became involved in LGBTQ activism and joined the Lesbian Avengers, where she met her life partner and co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers, Ana Simo. Today, Cogswell speaks regularly on the art of protest and video journalism, among other projects. The collection documents her personal and professional relationships, her participation in LGBTQ rights organizations, and her creative work and performance art.

Focus on Women, a television show featuring women of achievement, was initiated by Florence Rapoport in 1983. Prevalent among the women interviewed are writers, psychologists, artists, teachers, scholars, social activists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and health professionals. A Number of dancers have been interviewed for Focus on Women, which was directed by Shari Schultz, with assistance from Gayle Chokas.

Doris Cohen Levi received her A.B. (1935) and A.M. (1936) from Radcliffe College. A gifted musician and dancer, she taught dancing after her marriage to Robert E. Levi, and was lyricist, director, and choreographer of musical revues for Radcliffe alumnae reunions and other college events. This collection consists of music, original lyrics, production notes, choreography, and photographs of Doris Cohen Levi's musical shows for Radcliffe College. Also included is her dramatic monologue about Elizabeth Cary Agassiz written for the Radcliffe College Centennial (1978).

Marie Louise Mattlage, known as Louise, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1907, the daughter of Alsatian immigrants. In 1930, she married Walter F. Mattlage and the couple had two children, Valerie and Jonathan. The family lived in New York and Connecticut for much of their lives. Mattlage was a feminist, as well as a poet, dancer, and teacher. During her career, she worked as a dance instructor at the YWCA, the New Paltz Normal School, and the University of Bridgeport. She was the director of both the Fairfield County Modern Dance Workshop, a dance troupe composed of young mothers, as well as the Dancers of Faith, a group based in Connecticut devoted to spiritual worship through dance. She also served as the president of the Sacred Dance Foundation. She authored four books of poetry, as well as Faith Dancing: An Affirmation of Life, published in 1974. She traveled extensively throughout her life, eventually moving to Florida in 1971. In 1999, she died at the age of 92 due to advanced Alzheimer's Disease.

Melanson was a writer, storyteller, humorist, and performing and mixed media artist. She wrote columns for a number of New England publications, and produced and performed in a comedy television series called Food for Thought at Somerville Community Access station. She was also known as Chef Nostalgia, appearing in her one woman comedy show in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was awarded the "Cool Woman of America" award by the American Movie Classics Television Network, and named Ms. Congeniality by the Ms. Senior America Pageant. The collection includes a memoir entitled Dancing on the Roof, articles by Melanson, and two DVDs of her performances, One Woman Comedy Show and The Devil Made Me Do It.

Meredith was a photographer, artist, film maker, and performance artist. After she graduated from University of California at Berkeley, she began a career in photography, documenting the lives of women, gay and lesbian life, and her family. Many of her photographic exhibits were accompanied by performance pieces. She was the recipient of a Lila Wallace - Reader's Digest International Artist Fellowship, for which she documented the lives of Kenyan villagers through two photography series and a performance piece entitled Sacred Circles, Sacred Sites. The collection includes material related to her work in photography and performance art. Audiovisual material, most of which documents her work, can be found in the Audiovisual Collection of Ann P. Meredith.

Although opportunities to play sports were provided to Radcliffe students in earlier years, the Department of Physical Education was not established until the opening of the gymnasium in 1898. After 1915, the department administered medical examinations, compulsory physical education, and after 1920, a swimming test. It continued these functions until 1924 when physical education became a sub-department of Health Education. The Office of Sports, Dance and Recreation supervised the athletics program from 1960 to 1971. Since 1971, Harvard University has administered athletic programs; recreational programs such as arts, crafts and dance have been the responsibility of the Office of the Arts. The records of the Physical Education Department contain dance related materials including correspondence, materials regarding choreography and African American dance and ballet, and clippings.

A continuation of Dance and Dance Annual Directory, this magazine was first published in 1948. The Schlesinger holds an issue from 1978.

This magazine was originally published in 1955 as a monthly periodical, and became bimonthly in 1979. The Schlesinger holds one missue from 1987.

This book presents the first in-depth archival exploration of a lost history of dance as an extracurricular activity at Radcliffe College, the women's liberal arts college of Harvard University, during the first half of twentieth century. Using archival story-ing, an innovative methodology that brings the researcher's lived experience at the Radcliffe College Archives into the historical discourse, three archive stories were created. These vivid narratives thrive in the researcher's personal encounters with the surroundings of the archive and the interpretation and reading of what is to be found giving profound insights into what it means to walk in the footsteps of Radcliffe dance history.

The Schlesinger Library holds one 1984 issue of this performance art quarterly.

This book includes the papers of Marian Chace (1896-1970), a dance therapist and psychotherapist. It also includes selections from works written about the author.

The Schlesinger holds an incomplete run of issues ranging from 1974 to 1986.

This semiannual periodical is published by the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University's Women & Performance project. The Schlesinger holds volumes 17 to 29.

Written and directed by Inge Blackman, this documentary focuses on the Black lesbian experience, with interviews in Great Britain and interspersed performance pieces.

This film follows the Silver Belles, five tap dancers who performed in 1930's Harlem at the famed Apollo and Cotton Club. Together again, they're dancing to standing ovations and sharing stories of the Harlem Renaissance. It features a dance class called "Learn the Shim Sham Shimmy," a photo gallery, original music tracks, and an interview with the director.

This film provides a colorful portrait of the 82 year old dancer and historian Mura Dehn, who emigrated from Russia in the 1930's, and who was instrumental in the development of jazz dance. Film includes interview with her, archival footage from the 1930's and 1940's, explores jazz dance as an art and social phenomenon, and makes connections with bebop and breakdancing.

This film portrays the life of Angela Bowen who grew up in inner city Boston during the Jim Crow era, went on to become a classical ballerina, legendary dance teacher, a black lesbian feminist activist, writer and professor.

This documentary depicts life in Las Vegas as seen by women in various occupations. Each woman is first seen on the job, describing what her work entails. Ensuing segments of the film take the women to other settings, where they talk about a broad spectrum of activities and concerns: gambling, housing, making a living, family life, personal relationships, leisure-time activities, and aspirations for the future. Among the interviewees are Susan McNamara, who is shown rehearsing and performing a prize-winning ballet duet as well as performing as a showgirl, and Kelly Jones, who describes her experiences as an exotic dancer. The documentary includes images of Las Vegas as tourist mecca, with the stereotypical Las Vegas woman represented by Marlena Maynard as a showgirl.