On Tuesday, National Library of Australia director-general Marie-Louise accepted signed ballet shoes - one a ballet flat that once belonged to Robert Helpmann and the other a pointe shoe that once belonged to Marilyn Jones - which were donated by Ausdance.

Helpmann was a ballet dancer, actor, producer, director and choreographer, who worked in the industry and performed on stage until he died in 1986 at 77. Meanwhile, Jones is considered one of the greatest classical dancers Australia has produced and danced until 1978.

While the duo's significant careers are well-known, the shoes which represent these impressive feats were hidden away in a filing cabinet until they were recently found by Ausdance ACT director Cathy Adamek.

It was decided that the shoes would be donated to the National Library of Australia to coincide with Australian Dance Week - which began on Friday - and the institution's latest exhibition On Stage.

"We don't know what their provenance is or how they came to us, but we had managed to keep them fairly well preserved for a long time," Dr Adamek said.

"But shoes of famous dancers, they almost have an iconic aura around them. Certainly, the pointe shoe represents the ballerina, and certainly, Marilyn Jones and Robert Helpmann are iconic names in the performance world in Australia and beyond."

While libraries are synonymous with books, the National Library is home to many items that are significant to Australian history and culture. So many, in fact, that Dr Ayres said if every item was laid out it would stretch almost the distance between Canberra to Sydney.

As for the ballet shoes, they will be stored in stable, climate-controlled conditions and archival materials will be used to create custom padding and boxes to house them to preserve them for future generations. There are plans, however, to display them in the Treasures Gallery in the future.

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"The percentage of our collection that we can display at any one time is tiny," Dr Ayres said.

"It is a working collection. It's not a collection that is developed in order to exhibit. It's a collection that's developed so that any Australian, now or in the future, can delve into it and make their own meaning."

This is not the first time Ausdance has donated items to a national institution, with both the National Library and the National Film and Sound Archive home to items once collected by the organisation.

"If you look at the performing arts exhibition on at the moment, we donated a lot of the posters - some really beautiful things from early Bangarra days and early Australian Ballet days from when it morphed from Borovansky Ballet," Ausdance National vice-president Julie Dyson said.

"Those posters and programs document the wonderful artists that we've had gracing our stages through all the years."

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