In April 2003 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a grant to the Dance Heritage Coalition for its Digital Video Preservation Reformatting Project.
Concluding in 2003, the project determined and specified preservation file format candidates appropriate for the dance community to preserve its heritage. Media Matters LLC of New York City headed the project with James Lindner, Managing Member of Media Matters LLC, as Principal Investigator. Carl Fleischhauer, Office of Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress, acted as Principal Advisor.
While the focus of this project was on the needs of the dance community, the results of the experiment also affected other areas of scholarly inquiry and advanced the current state of knowledge. Information gathered through this research will be formulated into a nationally-accepted model, providing a technical foundation to those engaged in dance documentation and preservation, as well as others who use videotape to document their experiences and research. The findings made through the project will have enormous resonance for every major archival institution and the DHC is making the final report available in both electronic and hardcopy versions.
This document is the final report of the project.