Metadata: Lydia Chagoll archives
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Amsab – Institute of Social History
- Holding institution (official language):
- Amsab - Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis
- Postal address:
- Bagattenstraat 174, 9000 Gent
- Phone number:
- +32 9 224 00 79
- Web address:
- www.amsab.be
- Email:
- info@amsab.be
- Reference number:
- AmsabISH-Ghent-308
- Title:
- Lydia Chagoll archives
- Title (official language):
- Archief van Lydia Chagoll
- Creator/accumulator:
- Chagoll, Lydia
- Date(s):
- 1946/1998
- Extent:
- 1.54 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- This fonds contains archival material mainly dating back to the years before the collaboration between Chagoll and her husband Frans Buyens. We firstly note various personal documents such as private correspondence, diplomas, documents related to Chagoll’s studies, etc. The fonds mainly relates to her career as a dancer – i.a. the Ballet Lydia Chagoll. It contains programs, notes, contracts with dancers, agreements with for example the BRT/RTB, reviews of plays, various subject files (i.a. about shutting down the Ballet Lydia Chagoll in 1970), but especially correspondence with ministries and official institutions, with foreign dance ensembles, radio and television stations, dancers, etc. concerning subsidies, auditions and applications, ballet shows, choreographies, administrative matters, applications for performances, intellectual property rights, etc. Concerning her function as a dance pedagogue and teacher, we find i.a. syllabi, documentation and correspondence related to teaching ballet in various academies, school and conservatories. Lastly, the fonds also contains material dating after the dance career of Chagoll – such as proofs of collections of poetry, a file concerning the Auschwitz Stichting (no. 76; years 1990-1997), a series of files on a planned overview of the life and work of Chagoll and Buyens, etc.
- Archival history:
- Deposit by Lydia Chagoll (2005).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Lydia Chagoll was born Lyda Alderwereld in 1931. Her parents were Dutch Jews who lived in Belgium. The family lived through the Second World War in Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. After the war she started to build a dancing career under the pseudonym Lydia Chagoll. Between 1948 and 1973 Chagoll became known as a ballet dancer, choreographer and dance pedagogue (with a degree from the École Supérieure d’Études Chorégraphiques in Paris). In 1966 she founded the international dance company Ballet Lydia Chagoll. In the early 1970s Chagoll ended her dancing career. In 1973 she met the film maker Frans Buyens, who would become her partner. The couple collaborated for the next 30 years on socially conscious feature films, documentaries and short films. Chagoll worked as a script and directing assistant, but also directed her own documentaries – see i.a. In naam van de Führer (1977), Voor de glimlach van een kind (1982) and the recent Ma Bister (2014), on the persecution of the Roma. She is also involved in organisations for the rights of children – see i.a. the Lydia Chagoll-Stichting ‘Voor de glimlach van een kind’ (1978-1994), the Fonds Lydia Chagoll within the Koning Boudewijnstichting, the centre SOS Enfants-SOS Kinderen of which Chagoll was one of the founders, the Werkgroep Kinderen in Gevangenissen, and others. Lastly, Lydia Chagoll has published, since the 1960s, various books (on the Second World War, child abuse, ballet, dance pedagogy), short stories and collections of poetry. (Biografie van Lydia Chagoll http://www.buyenschagoll.be/html/ndls/bio_lydia_n.html; T. Danckaers, Lydia Chagoll: ‘De lijdensweg van de Roma is nauwelijks gekend’ http://www.mo.be/interview/lydia-chagoll-de-cirkel-rond; S. Vrielynck, Inventaris van het archief van Lydia Chagoll (1952-1973, 1978-1998), Gent, AMSAB-ISG, 2012.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Chagoll, Lydia
- Finding aids:
- S. Vrielynck, Inventaris van het archief van Lydia Chagoll (1952-1973, 1978-1998), Gent, AMSAB-ISG, 2012.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
