Archives for Dance, Music and Theater
Swarthmore College Performing Arts Archive
The Swarthmore College Performing Arts Digital Archive documents music, dance and theater events performed from the mid-20th century to the present. Sponsored by both academic departments and student-run organizations, the archive contains sound and video recordings, concert programs, posters, and press releases. Performers include students, faculty, and guests, many of whom were brought to campus through the Cooper Foundation, the Swarthmore Fund, the Stott Foundation, and the Fetter Chamber Music Fund.
Music events include instrumental and vocal recitals, chamber music concerts, choral and orchestral concerts, operas, musicals, symposia, lectures, masterclasses, workshops, and a cappella jamborees featuring such groups as Sixteen Feet, Mixed Company, Grapevine, Chaverim, and Essence of Soul. Of particular note are concerts featuring music by the composer Peter Schickele, Class of 1957 and new music for chamber ensemble conducted by faculty member James Freeman, a collaborator with the composer George Crumb.
Dance events include fully staged concerts, workshops, masterclasses, symposia, and lectures. Of particular note are events featuring student and faculty choreography, as well as a series of guest performances supported by The Swarthmore Project organized by Sharon Friedler, in which emerging guest choreographers danced and spoke about their process at events entitled A Window on the Work. Student-run dance groups represented in the archive include Terpsichore and Rhythm N Motion.
Theater events include full productions, partial productions in a series entitled Night of Scenes, staged readings of works by student playwrights, and workshops. Of particular note are guest performances by Pig Iron Theater, a Philadelphia-based ensemble founded in 1995 by Swarthmore graduates who studied under Allen Kuharski and guest ensembles from Poland connected to the College. Student-run theater groups represented in the archive include Drama Board and Vertigo-go.
The Performing Arts Archive is still under construction and still growing. As of Spring 2025, events included in this collection number around 2800 with files accessible while on campus by members of the Swarthmore College community. For more information, contact the Performing Arts Librarian.
Swarthmore College Music Program Archive
The Libraries hold copies of music majors' senior papers and some dance majors' papers written from 1973 to the present. A subject index is available.
Swarthmore College Folk Dance Club Recording Collection
Contains commercial recordings (78rpm, 45 rpm, and 33 1/3 rpm sound discs) used by the College's folk dance club for their weekly dances.
International Center for African Music & Dance
Underhill Library is privileged to be a North American holding library for approximately sixty videos from the ICAMD Pan African Video Collection. The majority of these videos come from field research of village gatherings. The collection also includes the Inaugural Conference of the ICAMD when in 2000 it came under the auspices of the University of Ghana as well as the Dance of our Ancestors Festival held at Swarthmore College in 2005. Additionally, Swarthmore holds chamber music scores and recordings composed by Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia, founding director of the ICAMD.
