Barker, Barbara M., 1938-

Dance history scholar, Barbara M. Barker (1938-2002), was an authority on nineteenth century American ballet and musical entertainments.

Born in Seattle, Barker danced professionally with Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah and as a Bluebell Girl in revues at the Lido in Paris before becoming a dance historian. She wrote numerous scholarly articles, edited the autobiography of producer and director, Bolossy Kiralfy, and published the work, Ballet or Balleyhoo (1984), a revision of her dissertation detailing the careers of three Italian ballerinas in the United States during the nineteenth century. Barker for many years chaired the dance program at the University of Minnesota, where she led a fundraising campaign to create a new building to house the program, which was named in honor of her upon its completion. Following her retirement from teaching, Barker began the De Mille Project, which brought together former dancers from Broadway productions that had been choreographed by Agnes De Mille and had them teach their roles to young dancers. These teaching sessions were taped and the project as a whole was cited by the National Initiative to Preserve American Dance (NIPAD) as a model of dance documentation. At the time of her death, Barker was working on a book about De Mille's choreography.

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