The German Dance Archive Cologne houses over 500 estates and collections of dancers, choreographers, dance teachers and ballet critics as well as the archives of various companies and institutions (e.g. the archive of the Choreographisches Theater Freiburg/Bonn or the Tanzforum Köln.
These holdings are supplemented by an extensive art collection and a costume collection comprising over 900 objects.
The photo collection comprises the archives of various dance photographers and currently over 300,000 photos, original negatives and slides. The library contains a reference collection of over 14,000 titles on all topics relating to dance, including rare books from the 16th century onwards, a collection of sheet music and a 16,000-issue collection of specialist journals.
Another core area of the archive is the documentation with around 600,000 newspaper cuttings, programmes and press materials, which document the German dance scene almost completely since the 1950s and contain important evidence of expressive dance from the 1920s and 1930s. The film collection currently comprises around 6,500 productions.
The German Dance Archive Cologne's current database of more than 50,000 entries in the Dance Information System (TIS) can be searched online via the archive's website and via the FID (www.performing-arts.eu).
In addition to preserving evidence of the art of dance, the German Dance Archive Cologne is primarily dedicated to academic research and the presentation of documents in special themed exhibitions and publications. The 300 square metre museum area regularly hosts exhibitions on aspects of the history of dance art from the 16th century to the present day
