The compilation of bibliographic listings was initiated as a project at a meeting of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology during the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) conference held in East Berlin, 1987. After an already fifteen-year history of the Study Group this Berlin meeting brought together the largest number of dance researchers from Europe, Canada and the United States. Elsie Ivancich Dunin volunteered to compile the bibliographic listings from the membership. The citations include only written and media materials that are "publicly presented."

The first volume (1989) included submissions from researchers in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The earliest dated publications beginning in the 1940s were principally from eastern European colleagues, while publications from western European and northern American researchers showed publication dates beginning in the late 1960s. An academic environment of a University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) Dance Department, and much personal dedication made the first publication possible.
The second volume (1991) included revised and updated listings of active members and new Study Group members; in addition, the references of two deceased distinguished members of the Study Group, were included.

The third volume (1995) compiled and edited
by Elsie Ivancich Dunin 

The fourth volume (1999) compiled and edited
by Elsie Ivancich Dunin and Tvrtko Zebec