Hello,

My name is Ivy TSUI, a London-based, Hong Kong-raised dance artist with a deep interest in archives, identity, and bodily memory. One of my long-term aims is to help make dance and its stories—both intimate, personal stories and wider historical narratives—more accessible and affordable to the public. Dance archives play a vital role for those who wish to trace their artistic roots, communities, and lineages, particularly in forms where knowledge is often passed on through bodies rather than text and other media. If you’d like to know a bit more about my practice and background, you can find me here https://ivytsui.com/ , or recent updates here https://www.instagram.com/danceivydance/

I am fundraising to purchase 81 ballet photo-postcards, believed to date from the 1930s–1940s, associated with Vic-Wells / Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. Of these, 21 are signed and 60 are stage photographs.

Please note: the cover image of this page is a re-imagined image created for non-commercial fundraising, educational, and heritage purposes. It does not reproduce the exact items in the collection. Copyright in the original photographs may subsist. If you wish to view the exact images, please contact me directly.

The signed photographs include portraits and stage images of Robert Helpmann, Beryl Grey, Gordon Hamilton, Pauline Clayden, Alexis Rassine, Maryon Lane, Moira Shearer, Celia Franca, and David Paltenghi. The unsigned photographs document productions including Carnaval, Les Rendezvous, Adam Zero, Le Festin de l’Araignée, Promenade, Cinderella, Jota Toledana, Pastorale, Comus, The Gods Go A-Begging, The Vagabonds, The Prospect Before Us, Selina, Trumpet Concerto, Harlequin in April, Clock Symphony, Le Tricorne, Summer Interlude, Casse-Noisette, Le Spectre de la Rose, Beauty and the Beast, The Quest, The Haunted Ballroom, Miracle in the Gorbals, The Wanderer, Symphonic Variations, Nocturne, Dante Sonata, Satan, and more. The images feature dancers such as Margot Fonteyn, as well as portraits of Mary Munro and Svetlana Beriosova.

As a dance artist with a ballet training background, I see these photo-postcards as important material evidence of performances and company members of Vic-Wells / Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet during 1930s-40s. They also highlight some works by Frederick Ashton from the period when the company was based at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in Islington. These materials are valuable for ballet history, performing arts research, and Islington’s local history, and they show how photo-postcards circulated dance culture in that era.

I encountered this collection last summer while volunteering at Oxfam Music and Bookshop Islington. Through researching their context, materials, and imagery, I have developed a deeper understanding of their historical, artistic, and cultural significance, and I believe future generations would benefit from accessing this collection in a public archive with specialist care.

How the funds will be used:

I am raising £400 (estimated) to purchase all 81 photographs from Oxfam Music and Bookshop Islington. I will then donate the entire collection to Islington Archive. Along with the photographs, I will provide contextual notes about the collection, information about this fundraising initiative, a list of contributors (with consent), and a rights assessment statement to the best of my knowledge.

If the fundraising exceeds the target, the additional funds will be split equally between:

Thank you for supporting the preservation of dance and local history.

Warmest Regards,

Ivy