Archives of the Dance (22): Pioneer Women – early British modern dancers (the National Resource Centre for Dance, University of Surrey).

Pioneer Women was an AHRC-funded project based on archives held at the National Resource Centre for Dance, University of Surrey. Two of the largest collections, those on Madge Atkinson and Natural Movement, and Ruby Ginner’s Revived (later Classical) Greek Dance, are categorized and interrogated for not only what they reveal of the work of these two dance artists, but also for how they resonate with dominant cultural trends in the arts. The research privileges a much under-explored or theorized period in British theatre dance history, places British dance in the international landscape, and offers a platform from which to reconceptualise the notion of ‘modern’ in twentieth century dance.