Tanzmuseum/ Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln

In Cologne's MediaPark, the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln plays a central role as an information and research centre for the history and contemporary practice of stage dance. The institution combines an archive, a library, a video library and a museum and is located at MediaPark 7; its sponsors are SK Stiftung Kultur der Sparkasse KölnBonn and the City of Cologne.

Collecting activities include the acquisition, cataloguing and preservation of estates and dance documents, as well as their presentation in exhibitions and publications. A dedicated dance museum, opened in 1997, presents rotating thematic exhibitions and primarily draws on holdings from the institutional collections, including artworks, photographs, documents, costumes, props and films, with a focus on dance history from the 18th to the 20th century.

The archive’s roots reach back to the 19th century: the first systematic documentations were produced at a Berlin academy for dance instruction. In the 1930s the tradition continued as the Deutsches Tanzarchiv, but it suffered severe losses during World War II; only a collection of about 20 scrapbooks survived after being taken to Switzerland. Post-war rebuilding and further new initiatives eventually led to the consolidation of the holdings and to their transfer to SK Stiftung Kultur in 1985, thereby creating public access.

The holdings are divided into four areas: the archive with extensive personal and thematic collections, a photo archive with over 160,000 images, a library, and a film collection and museum objects. More than 600 personal archives document the lives and works of numerous dancers, choreographers and dance educators (examples: Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, Harald Kreutzberg, Vivienne Newport). The library comprises (as of 2023) around 13,000 on-site titles as well as about 16,000 journal issues. The museum collection preserves, among other items, antique pieces, sculptures, several thousand original prints and posters, dance masks, props and about 500 costumes, including individual pieces by renowned fashion designers. In addition, more than 60 publications of the archive are available (as of 2016).