BOSTON'S DANCE TREASURES TO HAVE NEW HOME.

The Boston Dance Alliance, a consortium of dancemakers in the greater Boston area, has completed tabulating its first Boston Dance History survey to launch the Boston Dance Community Archive. The archive, under the direction of choreographer Ruth Benson Levin and dance video artist Bridget Murnane, will be maintained at John J. Burns Library, Boston College. Levin and Murnane hope to locate and acquire significant collections of books, photographs, videos, programs, and other materials to document the careers of dancers who have worked in Boston and the surrounding area.

The survey was sent to 368 members of Boston's dance community. Most of those responding were teachers, choreographers, and performers. There was close to a 50 percent return by mid-July, with more surveys continuing to arrive every day. The initial report suggests that a wealth of material exists. At press time, Levin and Murnane were looking for funding to hire a professional archivist to collect, sort, and prepare the collections for storage at Burns Library. Copies of the survey will continue to be sent to people who contributed to the growth of the area's dance activities.

The first materials deposited in the archive are the result of the recent demise of Dance Umbrella. As the organization prepared to close its doors, twenty-four volunteers, alerted by Levin and Murnane, arrived at the DU offices to retrieve thirty-six boxes of files and transport them to Burns Library for safekeeping. The archive at Boston College will form a valuable resource for scholars and historians, to be consulted along with the Boston Ballet archives and records of the late Boston-based Concert Dance Company, which are kept at the Harvard Theatre Collection.