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© 2006 Hampshire College. All rights reserved.
Barbara Mettler, dancer, dance educator, author, and film and video producer, developed her own style of modern dance which emphasized improvisation. Her core principles were beauty, freedom and democracy. Dance was conceived as a fundamental human activity, of which all people are capable, as opposed to an elite, choreographed, performance art. She taught widely, to diverse lay people, including adults, children, and the handicapped, primarily from her own Mettler Studios. Her students later formed the International Association for Creative Dance to carry the principles of her work forward.
Barbara Mettler was born on March 12, 1907 in Chicago, Ill. She attended Smith College, and studied dance with Mary Wigman in Dresden, Germany from 1931-33. Upon returning from Germany, she taught dance in New York City from 1934-40, and moved to Sanbornton, then Meredith, NH where she taught summer workshops in converted barn studios from 1941-1953. From 1943-46 she taught dance at Keuka College in upstate New York. In 1953-54, she toured the east coast with a small dance troupe in a converted bus. In later years she often toured with a small group of advanced students. Mettler taught in the Boston area until 1961, when she moved to Arizona, where she taught at Arizona State College in Flagstaff and the University of Arizona. She established the Tucson Creative Dance Center in 1963, where she taught summer and winter workshops. In 1979, at the request of a student, she taught at the School of Sport Science at the National University in San Jose, Costa Rica, studying Spanish in order to be able to communicate more effectively. She was also invited to teach workshops around the U.S. and in Europe. Throughout her career, Mettler wrote books and articles and produced films and videotapes detailing her methods of dance instruction. Barbara Mettler died in 2002.
The collection documents the activities of Mettler's professional life of over sixty years, including records of Mettler Studios and the Tucson Creative Dance Center. It contains extensive documentation of Mettler's teaching, including records of courses and workshops, published books and articles, and photographs, films and videotapes. It documents the development of Mettler's philosophy of dance in early notebooks and theoretical material. It also traces the historical evolution of her improvisational group performance style through records of group tours and performances. The collection also documents her close relationship with her students as well as her dance outreach efforts.
This collection is organized into twenty-two series:
No access restrictions, except for physical condition of fragile materials.
Copyright restrictions: Copyright of all published material held by the donor. Copyright of unpublished material will be held by the donor until January 2013, at which time it will become the property of Hampshire College.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Mettler, Barbara. The Barbara Mettler Papers, 1931-2002. Archives, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002
After visiting Hampshire College with long-time student Nancy Lob in 1994, Barbara Mettler decided to leave her archival collection to the college in her will. After her death in 2002, the bequest was made by the Barbara Mettler Trust in 2003.
The collection was shipped to Hampshire College from the Tucson Creative Dance Center in sections from 2003 to 2005.
It was processed (using acid-free folders) and organized by Hampshire College archivist Susan Dayall. Obsolete AV formats such as 3/4" videocassette and open reel audiotape were copied to more usable formats such as DVD and audiocassette, but the originals were retained as well. The finding aid was completed in 2006.
The series contains files about Barbara Mettler herself, including resumes, newsletters, files of quotations, and health concerns. Most are current to 1993, and include works in progress at the time of her death. The file "Diabetes" goes back to the 1950s, and the "History" file was compiled by Barbara Mettler from earlier files. In alphabetical order.
Includes several outlines for teaching classes and a large file on musical instruments. In alphabetical order.
Business files for Mettler Studios, including articles of incorporation and other legal documents, a large file on "Dance Suits" made to Mettler's specifications and sold to attendees at her Tucson studio workshops. In alphabetical order.
Files include a copyright file with certificates for published material, files for individual works containing handwritten notes, correspondence, reviews, and narration scripts. Includes a printed outline for the 1978 Summer Course video set. There is also a file on husband Allan Hammer's films. The series is arranged by format, then alphabetically.
Contains books, then articles, each in chronological order, as well as a set of brochures. The book "Dance as an element of life"(1983) is autobiographical, but not identical to the two "Autobiographical sketches" (1980-81) which may be unpublished. The article by Joanna Cashman (1998) is biographical, and the book, "Creative dance for children" (1954) is by one of Mettler's students who took notes as Mettler taught her first group of children. Brochures include mailings, advertisements and registration forms for workshops held at the Tucson Creative Dance Center, 1974-1981.
Several files of student cards and letters followed by folders filed alphabetically. Some individual persons and businesses, most in large files by letters of the alphabet. In addition to correspondence, many files have handwritten teaching notes by Mettler for individual tutorials. Also of note is a file of correspondence with Mary Wigman, Mettler's first dance teacher in Dresden, Germany.
After returning from Germany, Mettler established a school in New York City where she taught from 1934-1941. Files include brochures for the new school, handwritten and typed notes from talks and demonstrations, and a notebook of production material for performances, arranged chronologically.
Mettler and her husband Allan Hammer moved to New Hampshire (Sanbornton, then Meredith) to establish the Mettler Farm Studio from 1941-1953. Files contain notes, clippings and descriptions of the program, files for the summer school by year from 1942-1953, as well as several notebooks of teaching and theoretical material. There are also notes on the audiotape recordings made in the summer of 1953. Files are alphabetical and chronological within sections.
Mettler taught dance there from 1944-1946, forming a short-lived Department of Expressive Movement. This department, which took the place of a traditional sports and recreation department, ultimately proved unpopular at this small women's college in upstate New York. The files contain notes, teaching outlines and texts, press releases and reference material from a notebook containing notes and clippings on dance relating to the senses and scientific studies of dance.
This dance group spans the New York--New Hampshire years. Originating in the New York studio, the group continued under Mettler's tutelage and exchanged detailed letters and reports. In chronological order.
After Allan Hammer's death, Barbara Mettler took a small dance group of core students on the road in a converted bus down the U.S. East Coast to Florida. The group gave demonstrations and performances of improvisational dance in colleges and other venues. The files consist of notes, correspondence and transcripts of talks in alphabetical order.
These files include records of workshops and short courses in the Boston area and (after 1961) Tucson area, also the East Coast and Midwest. A number of courses were taught through the Physical Education Departments of Arizona State College and Arizona State University. Also included are children's workshops and teacher training. In chronological order.
After establishing the Tucson Creative Dance Center, Mettler offered intensive summer courses almost every year from 1973-1993. The files, in chronological order, contain brochures and student mailings, class lists, correspondence, sometimes class photographs (especially in later years), and extensive handwritten notes on class sessions.
Variously titled Winter Workshop, Training Program, Winter Course, these sessions took place between 1986 and 1994, but were not offered every year. These programs were for continuing students, and offered intensive study and practice teaching as well as perfomance. Students successfully completing two six week sessions received a certificate from Mettler Studios. Files contain mailings, class lists, correspondence, reports, and handwritten notes. In chronological order.
These files document single session and short-duration workshops, talks, demonstrations, and performances at the Tucson Creative Dance Center. Some of the files include a number of programs from a given time period, such as the Free-for-all, an annual event to which Barbara Mettler invited Tucson residents of all ages to participate in creative dance. Files contain publicity, correspondence, notes and sometimes written reports. In chronological order.
Records of the Dance Company based in Tucson include performances in the Tucson area as well as tours further afield. A new company was formed each year and trained intensively, being paid for full-time work. Also includes records of the project "Dance Company in the Schools" (1979-1981), which was grant-funded by Arizona and Tucson arts and educational organizations and provided performances and workshops in Arizona public schools. In chronological order.
In 1979, Barbara Mettler was invited to teach at the Escuela de Ciencias del Deporte at the Univesidad Nacional de Costa Rica by a student who had attended her summer intensive workshop in 1977. Mettler studied Spanish in order to be able to teach more effectively. This was the beginning of a long-term relationship with her "beloved Costa Rica". In 1980, she began to make fall tours of Europe, teaching in a variety of venues. The files consist of correspondence, publicity, handwritten notes and transcripts of talks, many in Spanish or German. In chronological order.
This series includes files for workshops and short courses in the U.S. outside the Tucson area. They took place in many venues including colleges, universities, institutes and conferences. They include work with the handicapped/disabled (physically or mentally) and on Indian reservations. Files include correspondence, publicity, notes and reports. In chronological order.
These notebooks contain press clippings, studio mailings and flyers, and other memorabilia. There are also scrapbooks of appreciation from students in particular courses, including one from Costa Rica. One from the 1930s is oversize (and separately boxed) and the pages are very brittle.
This series contains photographs, mainly prints, though some negatives and contact prints are present. The file includes both snapshots and professional photography, with the photographer usually identified on the file or the back of the photo. There is an extensive collection of snapshots from the years in New Hampshire. Most of the professional photography is of the dance group or Barbara Mettler herself. There are a number of files of photographs selected for the published books. In approximate chronological order.
This series contains audiovisual material in various formats produced by Mettler Studios. Barbara Mettler was an early advocate for the use of film and later video in dance instruction. The 16 mm films in the collection are in excellent condition. Most were produced as teaching films and distributed by Mettler Studios. The first major set of videotapes is the 1978 Summer Course, documenting each class period of the basic and advanced summer courses taught at the Tucson Creative Dance Center. This set was received on 3/4" videocassettes, and was copied to DVD in the summer of 2003. A second major set is from the summer of 1986. These unedited VHS tapes are from a failed project with a videographer to make a marketable video, and the set is incomplete. Of the other videotapes in the collection, some document performances or are edited teaching videos, while others are video copies of some of the films produced by Mettler Studios.
Audio tapes were received in two forms, as open reel and as cassette tapes. Open reel audio tapes were copied from the original format in various speeds to audio cassette tapes in 2004. The quality of these recordings is rather poor, with a good deal of ambient noise. Each listing is transcribed directly from the information on the original box. One major set is the Tour Story tapes (#1-#8) which concern the 1955 Dance Group tour down the East Coast and back through the Midwest. There is also a set of tapes from the New Hampshire summer school in 1953 (#22-#34). Many of the other tapes demonstrate handmade musical instruments and vocalizations, or are tapes of workshops or discussions. All date from the New Hampshire period. The tapes received as cassettes include an incomplete autobiographical interview, and other discussions as well as music. Transcripts of some of the tapes are filed in a folder in the same box.
This series contains artworks collected by Barbara Mettler. She was a friend of Fairfield Porter, and there are three signed works by him, as well as some unsigned landscapes. Other works picture Barbara Mettler herself. Also included are a set of photographs of Mettler dancers by photographer Bill Sears, enlarged and mounted on hardboard.