National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to American professional dance. Located in Saratoga Springs, New York, the institution serves as a repository for the history of dance, preserving the legacies of significant performers, choreographers, and innovators. Established in 1986, it opened to the public in June 1987. The museum's mission is to cultivate, promote, and foster the appreciation, understanding, and love of dance and its history, to collect and protect records of historic interest, and to annually select honorees for its Hall of Fame. The museum has been indefinitely closed to the public since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent operational challenges.

Philanthropist Marylou Whitney and builder Lewis A. Swyer developed the plan for the museum in the mid-1980s to address the lack of a centralized institution dedicated to dance preservation. The museum was established in 1986 by the nonprofit National Museum of Dance, Inc. After securing a favorable lease and renovating its chosen historic site, the institution held a short preview season in 1986. The official premiere season commenced in June 1987, marked by the dedication of the Hall of Fame. The museum's early decades were sustained by private philanthropy, including substantial financial commitments from Marylou Whitney and her husband John Hendrickson. In 2017, the institution marked its 30th anniversary with the publication of a comprehensive history. Following its pandemic-era closure in March 2020, the museum's management transitioned to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in August 2021.

The museum's holdings encompass a wide array of materials chronicling the evolution of dance from the early 20th century onward. The collection includes thousands of photographs, videos, artifacts, costumes, biographies, visual art, and archival materials such as personal correspondence. These items provide a contemporary and retrospective examination of seminal contributions to dance across multiple genres, including ballet, modern, tap, and jazz. The museum utilized these resources for rotating exhibitions on influential choreographers, interactive displays on dance anatomy, and a children's area promoting dance education, aiming to make the ephemeral art form accessible and tangible to the public.

The museum's only permanent exhibition is the Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, established in 1987 to recognize lifetime achievements in dance. The inaugural class of 13 inductees in 1987 included Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Isadora Duncan, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Lincoln Kirstein, Catherine Littlefield, Bill Robinson, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, and Charles Weidman. Subsequent annual inductions have honored more than 50 individuals, including choreographers like Alvin Ailey and Merce Cunningham, performers like Rudolf Nureyev and Suzanne Farrell, and figures from adjacent fields such as composer Igor Stravinsky and patron Lewis A. Swyer. Inductees are honored with handprint impressions in a dedicated gallery.

The museum is located at 99 South Broadway within Saratoga Spa State Park. It occupies the former Washington Bath House, a spacious, airy Arts and Crafts-style structure built in 1918. The building was selected for its architectural significance and central location amid the area's natural springs. The historic bathhouse was completely renovated and adapted to meet the museum's exhibition and archival needs. The site shares its park setting with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the summer residence of the New York City Ballet, which influenced the museum's strategic placement in a community already primed for dance appreciation.

The museum is located in Saratoga Springs, New York. Prior to its indefinite closure in March 2020, it maintained regular visiting hours from Tuesday through Sunday. The institution provided dance classes and master classes through the Lewis A. Swyer School for the Arts, which also hosted the New York State Summer School of the Arts during July and August. Although the main museum building remains closed, the adjacent Lewis A. Swyer Studios continue to be utilized by SPAC's School of the Arts for dance classes and youth auditions, maintaining a commitment to dance education in the region as discussions about the museum's future continue.