Maedée Duprès Archive

The Maedée Duprès Archive documents her work in England in the 1970s and 1980s. The papers include choreographic notebooks, touring schedules, budgets, administrative documents, lesson plans, reviews, publicity information, funding applications, financial accounts, festival brochures, and performance programmes. The videotapes, DVDs, and photographs record her solo performances and other works. The audiotapes contain recordings of music for her own choreography and for other people's choreography, in which she danced.

Dancer, choreographer and teacher, Maedée Duprès was involved in the British 'New Dance' scene from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Duprès came to London in 1968 to study music. In 1971, she started a full-time course at London Contemporary Dance School and was awarded a scholarship to stay on for a fourth year. On graduating, Duprès became involved in the X6 Dance Collective, alongside other prominent New Dance practitioners, such as Emilyn Claid, Fergus Early, Jacky Lansley and Mary Prestidge.

From 1975 to 1978 Duprès was a regular performer with the Rosemary Butcher Dance Company. In 1978 she began work with Richard Alston and also toured her own solo programme titled 'Dance & Slide' (1978), which was included in the first Dance Umbrella festival. Duprès was best known for her solo work and, in addition to her own choreography, had dances created on her by choreographers such as Siobhan Davies, Kate Flatt, Richard Alston, Ian Spink, Sally Potter, and Mary Fulkerson. Her interest in music was reflected in collaborations with composers, such as John Marc Gowans and Christodoucos Georgiades.

With Kate Flatt, Julyen Hamilton and director Timothy Lamford, she was a member of the dance-in-education group Scaramouche. She was commissioned to choreograph work for dance companies such as Cycles Dance Company, Spiral Dance Company and Extemporary Dance, and she also performed for the Royal Opera, English National Opera, and Second Stride. Duprès also taught workshops and lectured in choreography.

Materials were arranged at time of cataloguing according to the format-based classification scheme which was then in use by the National Resource Centre for Dance.

Material is available to view in the University of Surrey Archives and Special Collections Research Room.

Access to some collection items may be restricted, for instance where sensitive personal or commercial information has been identified during cataloguing, or to protect very fragile items. The Archives team will advise of any restrictions that may be in place.

All records are open to public access under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 unless subject to specific exemption. Records containing personal information on individuals are subject to the terms of UK Data Protection legislation.

The archive was deposited by Maedée Duprès with the National Resource Centre for Dance in 1989.

A catalogue for the collection is available to view on the University of Surrey Archives and Special Collections online catalogue .

Collection level description compiled by Sherril Dodds in 1998, and subsequently revised by Melanie Peart, 2021, and Simon Mackley, 2024.

This Archives Hub description prepared by Simon Mackley in May 2024. Please see the University of Surrey Archives and Special Collections online catalogue for any subsequent amendments.

All requests to publish or otherwise reproduce material from the archive should be directed to archives@surrey.ac.uk in the first instance. Unauthorised copying or reproduction is strictly prohibited.

The archive was generated by Maedée Duprès in the course of her professional work. Duprès deposited the collection with the National Resource Centre for Dance in 1989.

In 2005 a small project was carried out to migrate some of the audio-visual items within the archive to new formats.