A first edition of the W. B. Yeats book ‘Four Plays for Dancers,’ was recently donated to the National Dance Archive of Ireland which is housed at the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick.  The book belonged to Sara Payne, a dancer and teacher at the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet from 1928 – 1931, during which time she performed in the dance plays that Yeats revived.

Professor Meg Harper, Yeats scholar and Glucksman Chair in Contemporary Writing in English at UL, explains the importance of the find; “W. B. Yeats was a poet who thrived on change, always pushing restlessly into new directions. His beautiful volume Four Plays for Dancers (1921) is one of the greatest examples of his modernist experimentation across the arts. These four short plays, along with notes and musical scores, show Yeats's genius at creative collaboration with dancers, musicians, visual artists, and actors. This book is an exciting resource, stressing as it does Yeats's engagements with political violence, religious controversy, gender instabilities, and aesthetic form. This particular copy of the book, with handwritten notes that are a record of the Abbey performances, will help change the ways we understand Yeats's art.”
   
Dr. Victoria O'Brien, National Dance Archive of Ireland, Development Officer explains the significance of the donation; “What is of particular interest are the annotations for possible movement, sound direction and players cues. It is of interest that the book originally belonged to the Abbey Theatre actor Joseph O’Neill, who also performed in Yeats’ dance dramas.”

This significant publication was donated to the National Dance Archive by Sara Payne’s daughter and son, Orlaith and Julian Kelly.  Sara Payne was an English ballet dancer and teacher who worked at the Abbey Theatre from 1928 -1931 and then the Gate Theatre 1935-1945. Her papers have also been donated to the Archive by her family and including programmes and press cutting pertaining to ballet in Dublin from 1929- 1945.

For further information about the National Dance Archive of Ireland go to www.nationaldancearchiveireland.ie