The Adeline Genée collection
Danish by birth, Adeline Genée (1878-1970), was a talented ballerina whose greatest success was at The Empire Theatre in London, in productions such as Old China (1901), The Milliner Duchess (1903), High Jinks (1904), Cinderella and Coppelia (1906). Genée was also the founder president of the Association of Teachers of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain (later the RAD) and played a major part in the early development of the organization including the achievement of its Royal Chartership in 1935.
The archive spans the whole of Genée’s life and career with an emphasis on photographic material relating to both her professional and personal life. Other visual material includes publicity postcards, costume designs, drawings and cartoons. A significant amount of printed material is also included from performance programmes, magazines and newspaper cuttings, some of which have been organized into scrapbooks, to personal and business correspondence, ballet scenarios, hand-written music scores, speeches and typescripts.