Subject Guides: Dance: Encyclopedias

Dance Encyclopedias

International Encyclopedia of Dance With nearly 2,000 articles written by scholars from fifty countries, the Encyclopedia covers the full spectrum of dance—theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance. Cultural and national overviews are accompanied by entries on dance forms, music and costumes, performances, and biographies of dancers and choreographers.

Oxford Reference Online - Performing Arts This link opens in a new window Oxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.

MusRef: An Online Guide to Print and Internet Resources for Music and Dance MusRef is a site devoted to music and dance bibliography and reference. The site consists of five main features: An online bibliography of music and dance bibliographies and reference sources (both print and online), A blog devoted to music and dance bibliography and reference, Basic introductions to reference tools intended to help students understand how reference sources can guide them to appropriate research materials, Links to unpublished bibliographies, A corresponding Facebook page designed as a forum for interested librarians, scholars, and students. At present the bibliography includes more than 7,300 bibliographies and reference sources (both print and online), approximately 1,880 of which are annotated with critiques on use, coverage, organization, and pros and cons (click here for guidelines on writing critiques).
American Ballet Theatre's Ballet Dictionary A unique interactive resource designed to bring dance to the Web and make it accessible to everyone. Dover Publications has graciously allowed the use of 170 terms from the Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet, which are then demonstrated by ABT Company dancers.
New York Public Library Dance Research Collection The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library is the largest and most comprehensive archive in the world devoted to the documentation of dance. Chronicling the art of dance in all its manifestations - ballet, ethnic, modern, social, and folk. Select "Dance Research Collection" from the drop-down menu on the search screen.

Other Useful Encyclopedias

World Biographical Information System (WBIS) Online WBIS Online is the most comprehensive biographical database available, providing short biographical information on 5.49 Million people from the 8th century B.C. to the present.
more...less...
Included are 7.2 Million digital facsimile articles from biographical reference works on 5.1 Million people worldwide.

Britannica Online This link opens in a new window Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Use this powerful resource to search or browse for information in encyclopedias, magazines, videos, and Web sites.

Classical Music Reference Library Classical Music Reference Library brings together more than 30,000 pages of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music, in a unified online database.
more...less...
This release includes 26,774 essays and images from 22 sources, over 15,001 pages. Includes:

* Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, ed. by Nicholas Slonimsky
* Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music, ed. by Laura Kuhn
* Women Composers, ed. by Martha Furman Schleifer
* The History of Classical Music, by Stuart A. Kallen
* The Instruments of Music, by Stuart A. Kallen
* The Liszt Companion, ed. by Ben Arnold
* Music since 1900, 6th ed., ed. by Laura Kuhn
* A Short History of Opera, by Donald Jay Grout
* The Sibelius Companion, ed. by Glenda Dawn Goss
African American Music Reference African American Music Reference will contain 50,000 pages that offers the first comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression
more...less...
This release includes 2,771 essays and images from 71 sources, over 19,188 pages.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online is the first comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. More than 9,000 pages of material, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the
more...less...
This release includes 1,210 essays and images from 10 sources and hundreds of audio examples. Includes:

* Volume 1: Africa
* Volume 2: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
* Volume 3: The United States and Canada
* Volume 4: Southeast Asia
* Volume 5: South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent
* Volume 6: The Middle East
* Volume 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea
* Volume 8: Europe
* Volume 9: Australia and the Pacific Islands
* Volume 10: The World's Music: General Perspectives and Reference Tools

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window Indexes the full text of the revised second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the authoritative encyclopedia for all aspects of music. Includes links to digital sound, images, and related sites. Updated quarterly and annually. We have 5 simultaneous users.

Get Help

Music & Dance Help Desk
4432 HBLL - Level 4
Music & Dance Web Page
Hours: M-Th: 8am-9pm;
F: 8am-6pm; Sat:10am-6pm

Phone: (801) 422-1725
E-mail: music_reference@byu.edu