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.

Further information

In 2005, the National Review of Live Art archive was awarded a substantial grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to allow a 3-year project to digitally preserve the videotapes from 1986 - 2006. A further award allowed for the digitisation of the videotapes from 2007 - 2010, completing the digital preservation of content from 1,900 video tapes within the collection. 

A detailed archive catalogue of the whole collection covering each year of the NRLA and the new moves… festivals, is available from our online catalogue. The catalogue is arranged by years 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. (There are over 4,500 catalogue entries covering the collection: clicking on the Refno 'NRLA' in blue on the online catalogue, will begin to open the catalogue 'tree', or hierarchy browser.) All digitised video footage from the festival is available for viewing at the Theatre Collection. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a visit.