Elma Moore Booker papers

Collection

Identifier: 459

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers of Elma Moore Booker document Booker's life and career as the first African American woman to own a dance studio in New Orleans, Louisiana. The collection is .4 linear and contains biographical information, recital programs and photographs, and personal family documents and photographs dating from 1911-1998. The collection houses Elma Booker's certificate to teach from the Mildred Kohlman Studio of Dance. In the collection is an extensive record of dance steps and exercises. Some of these notes are from Booker; others are from Billy Truehart, a dance instructor and owner of Truehart Dance Studio in Hollywood, California. The printed material contains dance routines, recital ideas, and exercises for tap, ballet, acrobatics, hula, clog, and ballroom classes. Photographs of students are mainly recital pictures and pictures used for advertisements in recital programs. Most of the photographs are undated. A majority of the family photographs are undated, though some have notes on the back indicating the subject of the picture. A prayer book of novenas, two books on square dancing, and a program from Sylvia's Dance Troupe (Sylvia Hayden was one of Booker's students as a child) are miscellaneous items in the collection. Also included is a pair of black patent-leather tap shoes.

Dates

Created: 1911-1998
Other: Date acquired: 08/01/1998

Creator

Booker, Elma Moore (d. 1998) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright to these papers has not been assigned to the Amistad Research Center. It is the responsibility of an author to secure permission for publication from the holder of the copyright to any material contained in this collection.

Biographical Note

Elma Moore Booker was a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, and became the first Creole to teach dance to minorities. Booker was the daughter of Marie Kinler Moore and Frank Moore III; she was married to Joseph Earl Booker. She was the first African American to receive her Louisiana Dancing Teacher's Certificate in 1934 after she completed training from the Mildred Kohlman Studio of Dance. In the late 1920s, she opened her own dance studio where she taught ballet, tap, acrobatics, ballroom, and other American popular dances. Elma Moore Booker's dance recital in 1934 was the first of many shows to receive praise from local audiences and newspapers for the talent and skill of the young performers. Some of her students went on to become professional dancers; Sylvia Hayden, one of Booker's pupils, opened her own dance studio. Booker's niece, Sybil Kein, attended Booker's school of dance and later became an instructor. Elma Moore Booker ended her teaching career in the late 1970s. She died on April 8, 1998, at 88 years old.