Robert Lindgren and Sonja Tyven Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection is comprised of material created and collected by Robert Lindgren and Sonja Tyven, two of the founding faculty members of the School of Dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA). The two were responsible for the establishment of the Preparatory Dance Program (alternatively called the Pre-Professional Dance Program), and the North Carolina Dance Theatre, now the Charlotte Ballet. Included are newspaper and magazine clippings, correspondence, photographs, and promotional material from their careers spanning 1965 to 2014. Of particular interest are photographs from the first international tours by the NCDT and the School of Dance. Records related to productions of The Nutcracker and the restaging of Balanchine's ballets Raymonda and Mozartiana are heavily represented. Lindgren and Tyven also choreographed The Nutcracker for the Hungarian Dance Academy to be staged in Budapest, and some material is included related to these performances. In Hungarian, the title of the play is "Diótörő" and names are typically written with the family name first, followed by the given name.
A large number of awards, VHS tapes, clothing items, and other ephemera are also available in this collection. Clothing items are primarily t-shirts given to the cast and crew of NCSA productions of The Nutcracker, though some from the School of American Ballet and North Carolina Dance Theatre are also included, along with two sets of regalia.
Dates
- 1965 - 2014
Creator
- Lindgren, Robert, 1923-2013 (Person)
- Tyven, Sonja (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Archives collections may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information which is protected under federal or state privacy laws, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in the collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina School of the Arts assume no responsibility.
Biographical Note
Robert Lindgren was born on 9 December 1923 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He began studying ballet in Canada before moving to New York. Lindgren danced with the American Ballet Theatre, served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II, and after the war joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo where he danced from 1945 to 1952.
Sonja Tyven was born on 29 May 1928 in New York City. She began her training in New York, continuing later in Paris and subsequently under George Blanchine at the School of American Ballet.
Lindgren and Tyven met while dancing with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and were married in 1952. Tyven's sister Gertrude also danced with the Ballet Russe, and to avoid confusion Sonja adopted the last name Taavila for a time.
Lindgren and Tyven danced with the New York City Ballet from 1957 to 1959, when they opened their own ballet school, the Lindgren-Tyven School of Ballet, in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1965, Lindgren and Tyven were invited by NCSA's first President Vittorio Giannini to join the inaugural faculty of the School of Dance. Lindgren became its first Dean, a position he held for over 20 years, while Sonja taught and went on to establish the Preparatory Dance Program (alternatively called the Pre-Professional Dance Program) for younger students. Together, they choreographed the school's first production of The Nutcracker in 1966, a production that was repeated annually for more than 30 years. Lindgren founded the North Carolina Dance Theatre (NCDT) in 1969, a professional dance troupe affiliated with the school that went on to become the Charlotte Ballet. For his service to the arts, Lindgren received an honorary doctorate from Wake Forest University in 1976.
Lindgren left NCSA in 1987 to succeed Lincoln Kirsten as President of the School of American Ballet. Lindgren and Tyven moved briefly to New York before retiring to Winston-Salem in 1991. Lindgren also served as an adjudicator for Regional Dance America for many years. After retirement, he continued to serve on UNCSA's Board of Visitors and was awarded an honorary doctorate from UNCSA in 2006.
Robert Lindgren passed away in May, 2013, followed by his wife Sonja Tyven in October 2018.
Sources:
Carpenter, Marla. Sonja Tyven, founding faculty member of the School of Dance, has died
, UNC School of the Arts, November 6, 2018. https://www.uncsa.edu/news/20181106-sonja-tyven.aspx.
Kisselgoff, Anna. Robert Lindgren, 89, Ballet Dancer and College Dean, Is Dead,
The New York Times, May 14, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/arts/dance/robert-lindgren-89-ballet-dancer-and-college-dean-is-dead.html.Dance Emeritus Faculty
. https://www.uncsa.edu/dance/faculty/emeritus-faculty.aspx.
Extent
10.2 Linear Feet (2 records cartons, 1 wide document box, 5 document boxes, 24 oversized folders, 4 oversized photographs, 13 awards, 25 VHS tapes, 5 audio reels, 3 disks, 1 video reel, 1 cassette tape, 1 scrapbook)
Language of Materials
English
Hungarian
Italian
French
Abstract
This collection is comprised of material created and collected by Robert Lindgren and Sonja Tyven, two of the founding faculty members of the School of Dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts. The two were responsible for the establishment of the Preparatory Dance Program (alternatively called the Pre-Professional Dance Program), and the North Carolina Dance Theatre, now the Charlotte Ballet. Included are newspaper and magazine clippings, correspondence photographs, and promotional material from their careers spanning 1965 to 2014.
Arrangement
This collection has been arranged into five series: Series 1. North Carolina School of the Arts Material; Series 2. North Carolina Dance Theatre Material; Series 3. Hungarian Dance Academy Material; Series 4. Regional Dance American Records; Series 5. Awards, Ephemera, and General Information. Within each series, materials are arranged in chronological order.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Collection donated by Nan LaRosee, daughter of Robert Lindgren and Sonja Tyven, in 2022.
Separated Materials
Newspaper clippings not directly related to the Lindgren-Tyven family were removed from this collection. These included clippings related to NCSA and NCDT alumni, faculty and staff, announcements and reviews of NCDT and NCSA productions, advertisements for The Nutcracker, the Carolina Ballet, George Balanchine and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Unity Place development project, and the name change from NCSA to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Articles came priomarily from the Winston-Salem Journal, while the New York Times, The Sentinal, the Charlotte Observer, and the San Francisco Chronicale were also represented.
NCSA materials available in other collections were removed from this collection. Course catalogs dated 1977-78, 1980-81, and 1981-82; Campus Life Handbooks dated 1988-89 and 1989-90; NC Essay volume 6, number 3 and volume 7, number 5; and Twenty-Five Years are avalable in the RG-27: Publications Collection. Performance calendars from Fall 1999, Fall 2000, and Fall 2002 as well as a 1999 Summer Session brochure are available in RG-46: Promotional Materials Collection. Programs available in RG-45 included those for the Stevens Center Gala Opening, Awards Day 1998, Commencement 2005, A Celebration of Dance, the 40th Anniversary Retirees Luncheon, the dedication of Workplace, Fall Dance 1975, Giselle, Concerto Barocco, and La Sylphide.
Processing Information
Creator's file names were used where available; archivist supplied descriptive folder titles where the creator did not include one. Photographs were sleeved, and materials were placed in acid-free folders and boxes.
- Ballet Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Black-and-white prints (photographs) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Choreography Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Dance (performing arts genre) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Education, Higher Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- France Subject Source: Naf
- Great Britain Subject Source: Naf
- Hungary Subject Source: Naf
- Italy Subject Source: Naf
- Koner, Pauline
- Noble, Duncan
- Performing arts Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Photographs Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Printed ephemera Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Programs Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Scrapbooks Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Student activities Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Teachers Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Universities and colleges -- Faculty Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Video tapes Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Winston-Salem (N.C.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Robert Lindgren and Sonja Tyven Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Laura Silva
- Date
- March 2023
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the UNC School of the Arts Archives Repository
