The collection is on permanent loan from the Federal Archives Potsdam and includes materials from the ensemble’s scientific documentation centre, which served the choreographers in preparing the dances (e.g. materials on geography and history, dance forms/families, methods, folk dances as well as tapes, photos and newspaper articles). The ensemble emerged from the State Song and Dance Ensemble, the successor to the National Cultural Group of the Free German Youth founded on 1 April 1950. In 1952, the dance ensemble was integrated into the Berlin Volksbühne. When the choir was dissolved in 1962, it was renamed the “State Dance Ensemble of the GDR”, which included an orchestra, technology and administration in addition to the dance group. In addition to political material, children’s and fairy tale ballets and traditional folk dance revues were staged. The tasks included the appropriation and stage design of the national and international folk dance heritage. The ensemble was initially subordinate to the State Commission for Artistic Affairs, and from 1954-1990 it was a subordinate institution of the Ministry of Culture. The ensemble was dissolved after reunification in 1991.