Special Collections & Archives

This is a personal collection of a lifetime attendance of ballet and other performances of Monica Collingwood (1913 – 2003) spanning between 1929 and 1999. Monica Collingwood became passionate about ballet at the age of 7 when she saw a performance with Anna Pavlova. She visited performances at least once a week and seldom missed a key performance until the late 1970s. She actively followed the career of dancers such as Margot Fonteyn, Moira Shearer, Alicia Markova, Robert Helpman and Rudolf Nureyev.

The collection is a comprehensive personal account of a ballet lover and gives a rare insight into cultural life during the mid 20th century and beyond.

Holdings

• Programmes of ballet, opera, concert and theatre performances, some of which are annotated.
• Scrapbooks including press cuttings, stage performance and dancer photographs including Sadler’s Wells, The Junior Company and the film production of ‘The Red Shoes’.
• Article transcripts.
• Photographs and photograph albums including dancers of the Sadler's Wells Dance Company and the Royal Ballet as well as other national and international dance companies, and stage performances including "Swan lake", "Nutcracker", as well as various Divertissements.

The collection's holdings can be searched using our Archives catalogue.