Description
Research, analyze, record, and interpret the history of dance, choreography, and performance traditions using sources such as company archives, programs, reviews, photographs, oral histories, recordings, and notation scores; publish findings and support the preservation, curation, and reconstruction of historic works.
- • Organize dance-related sources; analyze and verify authenticity and significance.
- • Gather dance history data from archives, programs, reviews, photos, videos, notation scores, and records.
- • Trace the development of dance genres, techniques, and institutions in social and cultural contexts.
- • Research to identify, conserve, and reconstruct historical choreographies and performance practices.
- • Teach and conduct research in universities, conservatories, museums, and dance archives.
- • Conduct dance-historical research; publish or present in journals, books, conferences, and public programs.
- • Speak to dance companies, schools, and community groups to promote dance heritage and archives.
- • Prepare or review publications, exhibitions, and program notes for historical and stylistic accuracy.
- • Research histories of regions, periods, companies, choreographers, or dance communities.
- • Present dance histories through artists, genres, traditions, communities, and cultural movements.
- • Select research topics or pursue projects requested by companies, presenters, curators, or funders.
- • Organize materials for publication and digital dissemination via online archives and databases.
- • Prepare manuscripts to support performances, exhibitions, and public programming at dance institutions.
- • Advise on authenticity for restagings, reconstructions, costumes, music, and period movement vocabularies.
- • Translate or request translation of dance scholarship, notation, and archival materials.
- • Compile detailed biographies of dancers, choreographers, composers, designers, and companies.
- • Interview dancers, choreographers, repetiteurs, and audiences to record oral histories.
- • Recommend acquisitions and displays for dance collections: recordings, notation scores, costumes, props, ephemera.
- • Coordinate cataloging, metadata creation, and filing of dance-related materials.
- • Edit dance history publications, catalogs, newsletters, and program essays.
- • Conserve and preserve dance notations, recordings, photographs, and related artifacts.
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
