The Archive Project
Led by researcher Dr Andy Henry, the Memory in Motion project set out to gather a history that had never existed in one place. Through cataloguing, digitisation and oral history, the project has built a working archive from scattered materials and living memories and created a new foundation for understanding Scottish Dance Theatre’s first forty years.
The Archive is great and it can give us so much - the dates, titles, names and what survives in the record, but it does not fully capture the intangible things, like moments in the creative processes, relationships, motivations or how the company felt to the people who lived it. Scottish Dance Theatre means different things to different people, and the oral histories will preserve those personal histories for someone to hear in another forty years.
– Dr Andy Henry, Project Archivist
What Was Found and Recovered
The project has brought together materials that had been dispersed across boxes, shelves, offices and personal collections. Thousands of photographs were digitised, documents were placed back into context, names and dates were reconnected, and forgotten or fragile traces of performances, tours, workshops and community projects began to form a fuller picture.
Why Memory Matters
The archive tells part of the story, but memory brings it to life. Oral history interviews with dancers, directors, technicians, producers, participants and audiences have added feeling, detail and perspective to the record. These voices reveal how the company was experienced, not just what happened, preserving stories that might otherwise disappear.
