Finding still and moving images of performances can be challenging. When I am embarking on this kind of research I sometimes begin my search in Vimeo and YouTube, since hard-to-find clips sometimes find their way there. I've collected some additional sources to help you along. Please feel free to book an appointment if you are struggling to find visual material for your research.
Tadeusz Kantor
Yukio Ninagawa
Milo Rau
Jesusa Rodríguez
You can narrow your search in CLIO by format to find DVDs and streaming media in the libraries collections. While films available streaming are sometimes cataloged in CLIO by their title, this is not always the case. It is always best to search individual databases for streaming content. For more streaming media collections please review the streaming media guide here: https://guides.library.barnard.edu/streamingmedia.
The NYPL Library for the Performing Arts houses one of the most extensive research collections in theatre, film, dance, music, and recorded sound.
The Library is open for browsing of its circulating collections. To request access to special collections material, users will need to create a special collections account. It is encouraged that patrons to make an appointment with the relevant division.
The Library for the Performing Arts is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza (entrance at 111 Amsterdam between 64th and 65th) - between the Metropolitan Opera and the Lincoln Center Theater.
Billy Rose Theatre Division: offers walk-in access to their general research collections. Researchers may access special collections by emailing theatre@nypl.org or by booking a virtual consultation with one of our librarians, who will make an appointment for you to visit the Library for the Performing Arts.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division: At this time they are not offering walk-in access to their research collections, but researchers can still access them by booking a virtual consultation with one of our librarians, who will make an appointment for you to visit the Library for the Performing Arts. For further inquiries you can contact dance@nypl.org.
Music Division: At this time, the Music Division is not offering walk-in access to our research collections, but researchers can still access them by booking a virtual consultation with one of our librarians, who will make an appointment for you to visit the Library for the Performing Arts. For more information you can email music@nypl.org.
Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound: At this time, they are not offering walk-in access to their research collections, but researchers can access them by booking a virtual consultation with one of our librarians, who will make an appointment for you to visit the Library for the Performing Arts. For more information you can email recordedsound@nypl.org.
Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT): offers walk-in access to their research collections, but for faster access we encourage researchers to make an appointment. For an appointment, please call (212) 870-1642 or email toft@nypl.org.
You can find the general regulations for researchers here.
Digitized materials from all of the New York Public Library's archival collections, including the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Audio and Moving Image Archive.
Streaming video in a variety of areas from Alexander Street Press. Most have transcripts available.
Searchable database containing streaming video files of dance productions, interviews, coaching sessions, and documentaries by influential performers and companies from around the world. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational dance, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance. Videos can be browsed by people, role, ensemble, genre, and venue. Material types include documentaries, editorials, instructional, interviews, and performances. Database users may create their own custom playlists and video clips.
Online exhibit of brief video performance excerpts spanning from 1930s dance pioneers to today's most exciting artists recorded at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Massachusetts. Browse videos by artists, genres, or era. This website is a public project of the Virtual Pillow initiative which aims to build audiences and appreciation for dance and Jacob's Pillow.
"Kweli means 'Truth' in Swahili. kweliTV celebrates global Black stories and amplifies Black storytellers from North America, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Australia. Our mission is to curate and create content that is a true reflection of the global Black experience that’s oftentimes missing in traditional media."
A performing arts video collection with operas, ballets, documentaries, live concerts, and musical tours of historic places. Users may create their own playlists and custom video clips.
Provides access to films of full-length performances by artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms that defy categorization.
Contains interviews with key figures in theatre history and contemporary practice; masterclasses with specialist actor trainers from around the world; unique footage direct from the legendary practitioners themselves; excerpted and full-length contemporary productions; and documentaries previously unavailable to global audiences. The video material spans more than fifty years of documented work direct from practitioners and specialists.
Contains performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video. Some plays presented in multiple productions exemplifying various interpretations of the text, and technical and cultural differences among the presentations. Stage work of directors and actors are cross-searchable and available for side-by-side comparison. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, provide illustration of the development of texts and the productions.
Important online repository for avant-garde arts, including music, film and video, poetry, writing. It has working relationships with Anthology Archives, WFMU, Roulette.org, and other NYC-area experimental music and art organizations. UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.
Streaming video in a variety of areas from Alexander Street Press. Most have transcripts available.
"Kweli means 'Truth' in Swahili. kweliTV celebrates global Black stories and amplifies Black storytellers from North America, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Australia. Our mission is to curate and create content that is a true reflection of the global Black experience that’s oftentimes missing in traditional media."
"Projectr partners with educational institutions and public libraries throughout North America to present a curated and ever-expanding collection of acclaimed movies, archival restorations, award-winning documentaries and artist-made works from around the world."
Silent Film Online database brings together more than 500 films which together represent the basis of modern cinematic technique and film theory. Carefully curated with ASP's Video Advisory Board, the database covers silent features, serials, and shorts from the 1890s to the 1930s. High quality versions of films have been selected for the collection from leading distributors such as Kino Lorber, Lobster Films, Flicker Alley, and Image Entertainment.