Elizabeth Waters Papers
Collection
Identifier: UNMA-104
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains papers from the files of UNM Dance Department founder Elizabeth Hannah Waters. It includes photographs, correspondence, news clippings, material from an exhibit about her life, dance event programs and posters, and a sketchbook.
Dates
- 1946-1999
Creator
- Waters, Elizabeth, 1910-1993 (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Copy Restrictions
Limited duplication of print and photographic material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for compliance with all copyright, privacy, and libel laws. Permission is required for publication or distribution.
Biographical Note
Elizabeth Hannah Waters was born in Salem, Oregon, on March 24, 1910. She attended the Perry-Mansfield School of Dance and Drama in Steamboat Springs Colorado then continued her studies in New York City, first with Ruth St. Denis and then with Hanya Holm at the American Wigman School. After attending the Wigman School on scholarship for three years, she joined the Holm dance company and performed as a soloist from 1935 to 1939. Waters moved to New Mexico in 1941 after the troupe she founded at the University of North Carolina was decimated of male dancers by the wartime draft. Once in Albuquerque, she took work as a welder at Kirtland Air Force Base then held a number of teaching positions that led to her joining the faculty of UNM, where she founded the Dance Department and taught from 1947 to 1973. One of her students at UNM, Tim Wengerd, went on to be a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Company. Waters was inspired by the Native American and Hispanic traditions of dance in New Mexico and based many of her 50+ choreographed works of modern dance on these influences. She was known as the “first lady of dance in New Mexico.” Waters died at her home in Echo Canyon, New Mexico, on June 5, 1993, at the age of 83.
Extent
1.1 Cubic Feet (1 Box and 1 Oversized Folder)
Abstract
This collection contains papers from the files of UNM Dance Program founder Elizabeth Hannah Waters. It includes photographs, correspondence, news clippings, material from an exhibit about her life, dance event programs and posters, and a sketchbook.
Creator
- Waters, Elizabeth, 1910-1993 (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid of the Elizabeth Waters Papers, 1946-1999
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- © 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is in English
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu