The collection consists of planning documents; articles by Grell; approximately 7,000 photographs; correspondence; approximately 600 programs; exhibition materials, including text panels and titles; costumes; autographed ballet slippers; posters; fliers; brochures; noncommercial and commercial videotapes; original and noncommercial films; commercial DVDs; books; serials; newspaper and magazine clippings; original artwork, including sketches, drawings, paintings, and costume designs; sculptures; scores and librettos; scrapbooks; long-playing records; cassettes; commemorative medallions and buttons; portions of stages on which companies danced; jewelry boxes; postage stamps; ephemera including ticket stubs, backstage passes, calendars, and invoices and receipts; and handwritten notes. Materials are from all over the world where the Bolshoi, Kirov, and other ballet companies traveled and performed; countries and continents represented include the United States, Soviet Union and Russia, Europe, Japan, Latin America, Cuba, and Canada.

Included are materials that elucidate the Archive's history and purpose, including writings by Grell, a video and accompanying script (entitled For the Love of Art: The Story of Dwight Grell and His Ballet Archives), various statements issued by the Archive; and letters reflecting the appreciation civic and cultural organizations had for Grell and the Archive's work. The photographs provide extensive coverage of Soviet and Russian ballet and its leading figures from the perspectives of performance, portrait and candid shots, and rehearsal and instruction; in particular, the photographs provide a great opportunity to study the work, costuming, and staging practices of Russian and Soviet ballet and of principal dancers and directors including Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev, Galina Ulanova, Yuri Grigorovich, and many others. Included also are rare programs from the Soviet Union from early and mid-20th century, and rare recordings of ballets, including on Soviet record labels. The collection contains paintings and drawings of artists such as Valery Kosorukov and Nancy Fontaine, whose works were shown in the Archive’s exhibitions. The Archive's audiovisual materials contain unique coverage of Soviet dancers learning, practicing, and discussing their art, while its thousands of clippings, arranged by year and sorted into English and other languages, provide an opportunity to trace critical reception of Soviet and Russian ballet.

This collection represents a broad range of subjects: Russian and Soviet Dance; choreography and costume design; and Russian and Soviet culture, including popular culture, as reflected in programs, print materials, and photographs.