ABSTRACT
Worldwide it is quite usual for major opera houses and some national theatres to set up their own archives. These usually include information on the building and running of the theatres as well as the full range of events performed within their auditoria. Such important collections can be found at the Paris Opéra,1 La Scala, Milan2 and the Royal Theatres of Stockholm and Copenhagen.3 In London the Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden, established its own archive in the 1950s. This preserves archival material on the Royal Ballet, particularly since 1946 when it became resident there.4 It is less usual to find archives in dance companies which lack a permanent theatrebase. Those that have established archives include the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the United States;5 the National Ballet of Canada;6 and the Australian Ballet.
