The Jerome Robbins Dance Division was honored to acquire the Remy Charlip Collection in 2020.

Charlip was a multi-faceted artist whose work spanned several genres. A founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Charlip danced with Cunningham for a decade and also served as the resident costume designer before parting ways.

In the 1950s, Charlip was a prolific member of the avant-garde company, The Living Theater, as well as the theatrical troupe, The Paper Bag Players, and also continued a prestigious dancing career in works for Jean Erdman and Katherine Litz. He is credited with inventing a new form of choreography with his airmail dances which, as the name suggests, were dances in illustrative form sent through the postal service for dancers to interpret and perform.

In tandem with his work as a performing artist, Charlip had a successful career as an illustrator of children’s books, often collaborating with authors Margaret Wise Brown and Betty Miles, as well penning several titles himself. All of these facets of Charlip’s indelible creativity are captured in his personal archive which includes drawings, choreographic notes, correspondence, film, and photographs.

The collection will be processed by the Library and will then be available for researchers at the Library for the Performing Arts.