German Dance Archives
German Dance Archives, Cologne (The Deutsches Tanzarchiv, Köln) was founded in 1948 by Kurt Peters, a German dancer and dance teacher.
History
In 1986, it was purchased by the former Stadtsparkasse Köln (Cologne Commercial and Savings Bank) and was then made, in joint sponsorship with the City of Cologne, accessible to a broad public as a centre of documentation, research and information about dance in Germany.
Film collection
The archives' film collection contains over 3500 dance-related films, including experimental dance film, dance documentaries, feature films on dance, stage recordings, and dance for camera.
Museum and exhibitions
Since 1997, a dance museum established within the archives offers public film screenings, discussions and lectures about modern and contemporary dance. Its exhibitions have been presented in many European cities, including Antwerp, Gdansk, Enschede, Jerusalem, Lyon, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tbilissi, Crakow, Prague, and Brussels.
Dance research promotion
As part of modern and contemporary dance research promotion, in cooperation with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia every five years selected dance scholars are awarded the Dance Research Award (Tanzwissenschaftspreis NRW).