Ann Barzel (1905-2007).

Harboring a huge appetite for dance in her tiny frame, for eight decades Ann Barzel documented dance through her writing, lectures, and filming. Chicago was Barzel's home base for many of her 101 years. She was the moving force behind the Ballet Guild of Chicago, reviewed for two of the city's newspapers, and left her vast dance collection to the Newberry Library. She also taught math in Chicago's public schools.

Barzel, who studied ballet with Adolph Bolm and modern with Doris Humphrey, performed with the Chicago Opera Ballet and Bernice Holmes' ballet group. As a writer and researcher, Barzel focused on technique, explaining the mechanics of dance to her readers and assembling a history of dance teaching in America for the scholarly Dance Index. She wrote for Dance Magazine as early as 1937, and remained a senior advising editor when she was no longer writing. Copies of her historic films are archived at the Newberry and the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. Barzel's footage is included in recent documentaries on the Ballets Russes troupes and Cuba's ballet festival.