Our resources

The Philip Richardson library houses a wealth of materials relating to dance and dance education. Amassed over a period of some 80 years, the collections include resources to support the Academy’s educational programmes as well as items of historical interest with wider research value.

General reference collections are available for browsing on open shelves and include books, journals, DVDs, CDs and Benesh Movement Notation scores.

The book collections cover all aspects of ballet and dance from history, technique and anatomy to biography, music and notation. Dance education is further supported by books dealing more generally with the subjects of teaching, training, learning, cognitive development and motor skills. Regular acquisitions keep the collections up to date and the most recent dance publications sit alongside historical texts by authors such as Edward Scott, Cecil J. Sharp and Mark E. Perugini.

Journal holdings include both current subscriptions to international dance periodicals such as Ballet 2000, Dance Australia, Dance Chronicle and Dance UK News, as well as discontinued titles such as Dance and Dancers, Dance Perspectives and Ballet Today.

CDs available include the recordings of music for full-length ballets and dance works by classical and contemporary composers, as well as compilations of music for classwork and choreography. DVDs range from full-length performances of classical ballets and modern danceworks to historical documentaries and body conditioning programmes.

A unique collection of Benesh Movement Notation scores is housed in the library and include records of great choreographic works such as Ashton’s La Fille mal Gardée, Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and Hans Van Manen’s Five Tangos. The collection also encompasses a number of scores which explore the use of BMN as a tool for anthropological and clinical research such as Julia McGuiness’s Application of Benesh Movement Notation to Cerebral Palsy Research and Andrée Grau’s study of Ugandan dances.

Special collections include materials such as rare books, performance programmes, souvenir brochures, photographs, artworks and artefacts.

The RAD’s own historical archives include past examinations syllabi, minutes of committee meetings, various prospectuses, course brochures and annual reports, documents, papers and photographs relating to events and activities throughout the organisation's 90 year history. These are housed alongside the personal collections of Dame Adeline Genée, Phyllis Bedells and Philip Richardson.

Other collections include the photographic archive of the late George Buckley Laird Wilson and memorabilia relating to artists such as Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina and Margot Fonteyn.

The Academy is currently working towards an online catalogue searching facility. Please bear with us. In the mean time, find a taste of our collection in the attachment below:

  Journal holdings A-Z (57 KB)