Overview

The National Review of Live Art (NRLA) archive was donated to The Nottingham Trent University in the 1990s by Nikki Milican OBE, Artistic Director of the NRLA, as a key addition to the Live Art Archives held there, and was subsequently transferred to the University of Bristol Theatre Collection in 2006. By 1994 the NRLA had begun to be produced by New Moves Ltd., the independent company established by Milican to produce the NRLA and New Moves dance festivals (later to become the 'New Moves Across Europe' and 'new moves new territories' festivals) in Glasgow. In 1997 New Moves changed its name to New Moves International Ltd, which reflected its growing international links and status.

What the collection holds

Primarily a video archive that holds footage of performances from the prestigious NRLA festival, the collection also includes extensive printed materials, including festival brochures and programmes, posters, press cuttings, photographs and other administrative documents relating to both the NRLA and the ‘new moves new territories’ dance festivals. The video footage from the NRLA covers the period from 1986 (when the festival was first documented on film) to 2010 when the festival closed. As well as recordings of performances from the NRLA, there are also tapes of installations, discussions, and interviews with participating artists.

A detailed archive catalogue of the NRLA and the new moves… festivals is available online (clicking on the Ref No 'NRLA' in blue, will begin to open the catalogue 'tree', or hierarchy browser).  The catalogue, containing over 4,500 entries, is arranged by year and has been divided into paper/printed material and audio-visual content, which includes entries for all the digitally preserved copies of NRLA video documentation.

All digitised video footage from the festival is available to view onsite at the Theatre Collection. However, a number of recordings have been cleared for online access and can be viewed via our digital archive.  Links to recordings available to view online can also be found via the NRLA catalogue.  If you require any assistance in viewing material online or in our Reading Room, please contact us.

Further information

In 2005, to preserve the NRLA's fragile video formats beyond their limited life-span, a £297,000 3-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Capturing the Past, Preserving the Future, enabled digitisation of the footage from 1986-2006. A second £140,000 AHRC-funded project, Into the Future: Sustainable Access to the National Review of Live Art Digital Archive, allowed for the digitisation of the videotapes from 2007-2010 completing the digitisation of the 1,900 video tapes from the collection, added new data from the final years of the festival (2007-2010) and made the material accessible online.