Finding Aids to Archival Collections

The Programs series documents Bolm’s choreographic career with several touring and resident companies. It includes programs from the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Ballet School, the Chicago Civic Opera, the Chicago Allied Arts organization, and the Adolph Bolm Ballet. The Hollywood Bowl Magazine provides details about The Spirit of the Factory , one of Bolm's more important ballets.

Beyond detailing his own companies, many of the programs feature Bolm’s work with major New York and European dance companies. The Ballet Theatre programs feature Bolm’s production of Peter and the Wolf , which he choreographed for the company in 1940 and which was performed in New York and on tour over the next four years. Bolm is listed as a company choreographer in Ballet Theatre’s souvenir program from 1940 (its founding season), alongside choreographers Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinska, Antony Tudor, and Agnes de Mille. Bolm and Tudor are also listed as a principal dancers. Other dancers mentioned include Lucia Chase, Nana Gollner, Nora Kaye, Anton Dolin, and Hugh Laing. This souvenir program also includes designs from several works in the Ballet Theatre repertory, synopses of these ballets, and headshots and biographies of the principals and soloists. Souvenir programs from Col. W. de Basil’s Ballet Russe 1946-1947 seasons also feature famous dancers. In addition, the series contains 1916-1917 programs from Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes’ American tour, and the cover of a 1930 program. There are also programs for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo under Leonide Massine in 1939 and the same company under Bronislava Nijinska in 1943. These two latter programs feature famous ballet stars such as Alicia Markova, Alexandra Danilova, Frederic Franklin, Maria Tallchief, and such productions as Balanchine’s Serenade , (described as “originally staged for the late American Ballet”), Nijinska’s The Snow Maiden , and Igor Schwezoff’s The Red Poppy . Diaghilev’s program lists the company’s planned season, includes positive press reviews (several regarding Vaslav Nijinsky), photographs, and a full page color illustration of Léon Bakst’s design for L’Après-Midi d’un Faune .