Franziska Boas Collection, 1920-1988
Span: 1920-1988
English
collection
36 ft.
95 boxes
Franziska Marie Boas (1902-1988), pioneering choreographer, dancer, percussionist, teacher, ethnologist, and therapist, was born in New York City, the youngest of six children of noted anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942) and Marie Krackowizer. Like her father who was known for his commitment to social activism and his battle to rid the scientific community of racially based theories of intelligence, Franziska Boas was also a committed activist for racial equality and social justice. She worked to teach young people about the value of dance as a means of communication; she pioneered dance as therapy; she encouraged students to expand their own creativity through improvisation; she combined the study of dance with ethnology; and, most importantly, she broke down the racial barriers that stood in the way of almost all African-Americans wishing to pursue careers in dance. The Franziska Boas collection, consisting of multi-format materials documenting her professional and personal life, spans Boas's career, from her academic training at Barnard College through her professional work as a dance teacher, accompanist, therapist and ethnologist, and includes documentation of her work as a social activist as well as a community educator after her retirement.
Correspondence, labanotation scores and other choreographic notes, business records, playbills, production material, writings by Franz Boas, artwork, and other papers chiefly documenting the life and career of pioneering dancer and teacher Franziska Boas.
Franziska Boas Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress
Boas, Franziska
The papers of an important American choreographer, dancer, teacher, and social activist.
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Modern Dance
Women in the Performing Arts
Dance
Boas, Franziska
Boas, Franz
ML31.B63
Performing Arts Encyclopedia
scdb
Music Division, Library of Congress
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu006001
IHAS
110125
loc.natlib.scdb.200033607