Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Historical Pictures


Recommended Posts

Each month I'd like to offer interested ballet alert readers a look at some historical photos, mostly, but not exclusively, in the form of theatrical post cards.

I trust the set up on PictureTrail.com, the site where I've subscribed to some space for scanned pictures of this sort, is clear and useful to anyone looking at these pictures.

I've made some effort to identify the pictures in question, though, as you'll see I have sometimes comes up empty handed. I'd appreciate any new information that might fill in some of the blanks or suggest corrections to the captions as they now stand.

You may click on the individual thumb-nail photos themselves to enlarge them, and see fuller captions, or you may choose to let the site do what it calls a 'slide show' and flash the selection by at a rate of its own.

For now, here's the album for March.

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p...704&uid=1471587

RG

Link to comment

Thank you, RG! I'm going to leave this here for a day or two and then make it a sticky. Thank you for sharing the photos, and your knowledge. It will be like getting to take a flash card course in ballet history!

Ballet Alertniks, do discuss the photos here!

Link to comment

What a treat. I love Karsavina and am always glad to see images of her, but it was the picture of Koslov as Bluebird that just stunned me. On first look the wings seemed too much, but then I thought about the series of cabrioles, and how the extensions on his arms would affect the line of his upper body as he travelled -- amazing!

Link to comment

i have a few other bluebirds from this period. i THINK the point of the wings is to establish the bluebird in the cortege of characters at the start of act 3, i SUSPECT that for the pas deux these wings might well have been removed. the original costume, about which bronislava nijinska writes somewhat, was a wire-framed affair much stiffer than these - there are photos of fokine in such wire-framed additions.

kozlov (kosloff) ended up here in the states as a dancer and teacher. he was a moscow schooled dancer (marred to alexandra baldina) but he also danced at the maryinsky.

Link to comment

To the Pointe-

My thoughts exactly!! What's also interesting is that none of those dancers would get hired today. Choreography has evolved and I am guessing that at that time, overhead lifts were rare. However, everything has a give-and-take, and I am wondering sometimes if we are sacrificing artistry for jaw-dropping tricks.

Just a thought...

Clara :)

Link to comment

They look very thin to me. I don't see why there would be any trouble partnering them except for maybe all those layers of clothing. Another thing to think about in terms of their technical skill is that those ballets still challenge principal dancers at the very best companies around the world today. So while they might not be hired for reasons of style, their technique was undoubtedly excellent.

Link to comment

The Kchessinskaya Mazurka and Karsavina Chopiniana are both so tasty! I can almost hear Kchessinskaya's foot stamps. Karsavina, on the other hand, looks so very weightless. And notice Karsavina's hands -- exquisite!

Thank you very much, RG! :)

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...