The American Dance Festival is a non-profit organization committed to serving the needs of dance, dancers, choreographers, and professionals in dance-related fields. It presents a six and a half week summer festival of modern dance performances and educational programs, hosts community outreach activities, and sponsors numerous projects in the humanities. Its mission is to create and present new dance works, preserve the modern dance heritage, build wider national and international audiences and enhance public understanding and appreciation for modern dance, and provide training and education for dancers and choreographers. The collection consists of materials collected by the American Dance Festival pertaining to choreographers, dance companies, and others involved in modern dance, including printed materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, press kits, programs, and correspondence.

The collection consists of materials collected by the American Dance Festival pertaining to choreographers, dance companies, and others involved in modern dance, including printed materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, press kits, programs, and correspondence.

The American Dance Festival is a non-profit organization committed to serving the needs of dance, dancers, choreographers, and professionals in dance-related fields. It presents a six and a half week summer festival of modern dance performances and educational programs, hosts community outreach activities, and sponsors numerous projects in the humanities. Its mission is to create and present new dance works, preserve the modern dance heritage, build wider national and international audiences and enhance public understanding and appreciation for modern dance, and provide training and education for dancers and choreographers. The collection includes photographic materials created and collected by the American Dance Festival, including negatives, contact sheets, prints, and transparencies.

The collection includes photographic materials created and collected by the American Dance Festival, including negatives, contact sheets, prints, and transparencies.

Free to Dance: The African-American Presence in Modern Dance was a three-part television documentary co-produced by the American Dance Festival and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. The series aired on PBS' Great Performances: Dance in America in 2001. It chronicled the role of African-American choreographers and dancers in the development of modern dance as an American art form. The collection includes film, video, sound recordings, oral histories, interview transcripts, business records, photographs, clippings, and research materials created or collected during the production of the three-part television documentary Free to Dance.

The collection includes business records, grant proposals, correspondence, film, video, sound recordings, oral histories, interview transcripts, photographs, clippings, and research materials created or collected during the production of the three-part television documentary Free to Dance.

The bulk of the Free to Dance Collection dates from 1998 to 2001, when technical production of the series took place; however, the collection also includes grant proposals and early project development documentation dating back to 1987, as well as some correspondence and financial information created after its air date in 2001.