Searching Effectively

Dance Research Resources

Dance periodical indexes

• Performing Arts Periodicals Database. Indexes several dozen dance periodicals from the 1970s to the present and also offers indexes and abstracts of periodicals dating back to 1864. The full texts of recent issues of some dance journals are searchable through this database. 

• International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance. Includes full text for more than 100 journals, and citations, often with abstracts. Indexes journal articles, books, and dissertations on all aspects of theater and performance. Includes all of the content available in the 14-volume printed International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance.

• Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. Primary sources for the history of the film and entertainment industries, from vaudeville and silent movies to c.2000. Includes US and UK trade magazines covering film, dance, music, broadcasting and theater, together with film fan magazines and music press.

Multidisciplinary periodical indexes

• JSTOR. Multidisciplinary full-text database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities, including important dance journals.

Dissertations/Theses

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. Contains citations for dissertations and theses done at U.S., Canadian and some foreign institutions. Free PDFs of almost all dissertations done since 1997.

• British Library EThOS Service. Search c. half a million doctoral theses from UK institutions. Download instantly, or order a scanned copy quickly and easily.

• OSU Dance Dissertations and Theses. Listed by category. Most titles are linked to full-text PDF files.

• OSU Music Dissertations and Theses. Listed by category. Most titles are linked to full-text PDF files.

• OSU Graduate School : "How To Prepare Your Thesis or Dissertation"

Online reference works

• International Encyclopedia of Dance. Articles by scholars from many countries. Covers dance— theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers.
• Grove Music Online (Oxford)

Library catalogs

• OSU Libraries Catalog. Look for dance books and videos available at the Music & Dance Library and other OSU libraries.

• OhioLINK. A combined ("union") catalog of most Ohio college and university libraries. If an item is not available at OSU (not listed in the online catalog, checked out, etc.), search for it in this database and make an online request to have it sent here. The service is free, and most OhioLINK items arrive in three to five business days.

• OCLC WorldCat. If you cannot locate an item in our online catalog or in the OhioLINK catalog, search this union catalog of thousands of libraries around the world. Many items can be requested by interlibrary loan, and you can make the request on line. If you need help, ask any staff member for assistance.

• New York Public Library Research Catalog. Search the holdings of the NYPL Research Libraries, including the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

• Additional library catalogs

Other online research resources

• Open Vault - WGBH. Historically important content produced by the public television and radio station WGBH. Includes audio, video, images, searchable transcripts. 
• Hathi Trust. More than ten million digitized books and journals.
• Lincoln Kirstein Writings. Lincoln Kirstein was co-founder, with George Balanchine, of the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet.

• George Balanchine Foundation Archives

• Fred Fehl Dance Collection (University of Texas at Austin). Photographs of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Other companies to be added as digitization is completed.

• American Dance Festival Archives (Duke University)

• National Dance Education Organization. A non-profit organization dedicated to promoting standards of excellence in dance education by providing the dance artist and the dance educator a network of resources and support, a base for advocacy, and access to programs and projects that focus on the importance of dance.

• Society for Dance Research. An internationally focused, British-based non-profit society that supports and develops scholarly interests in all forms of dance through seminars, conferences, performances, and publications.

• Dance Studies Association. An international organization of dance scholars, educators, and artists which aspires to be a gathering place to facilitate collegiality and contribute to the advancement of the field.

• Dance USA. Advances professional dance by addressing the needs, concerns, and interests of artists, administrators, and organizations.
• Opera & Ballet Primary Sources. 
• OSU Research Databases