The Limitations of the Archive: Lost Ballet Histories and the Case of Madame Mariquita

Abstract

Dance historians have long relied on institutional archives when reconstructing the past. Yet archives are notoriously incomplete and biased, promoting certain voices and leaving others out. This article offers a case study of what is lost when we look only at official archives. My focus is on turn-of-the-twentieth-century Paris, a time and place long thought to have been devoid of creative ballet choreography. I begin with a brief inventory of the state archives and compare those records to information recovered from the press, then demonstrate how different historical narratives can be constructed when comparing these two documentary sources. I conclude with an example of how fragmentary archives can skew history through a case study of Madame Mariquita, a once celebrated choreographer who has been left out of canonic history.