Balanchine SWAN LAKE stage picture

[Mel Johnson]

The one in the grand jeté.

[bart]

The wide mouth -- which so often seemed just about to break into a big grin -- certainly seem Wildean. I Googled and came up with This 1947 Photo of Wilde displaying a particularly radiant smile. I discovered to my surprise that it comes from atm711's own blog here on Ballet Talk! Click the thumbnail to enlarge. Thanks, atm711.

[Ray]

The wide mouth -- which so often seemed just about to break into a big grin -- certainly seem Wildean. I Googled and came up with This 1947 Photo of Wilde displaying a particularly radiant smile. I discovered to my surprise that it comes from atm711's own blog here on Ballet Talk! Click the thumbnail to enlarge. Thanks, atm711.

The grand jete pic is Pat Wilde for sure.

[rg]

re: odette's ident. i'm quite unconvinced about any leclercq possibility, feel a strong hunch about adams and a minor one about kaye, the end.

[perky]

I think the ballerina might be Tanny -- it looks like her nose to me, also her cheekbone. I've been watching her and jacques in Robbins's faun on youtube -- almost daily, FABULOUS little film, off the d'Amboise DVD. (I've got to buy that.) It's fascinating how her face recomposes from different angles -- she had a fabulous face, with a striking aquiline nose. I think this really might be her.

The legs look a little thick for Tanny's, but hte angle and the side-lighting may be playing tricks on hte eyes.

It DOES also look like Jacques.

Tanny was the Greta Garbo of ballerinas

[rg]

signed Patricia Wilde studio portrait - undated and uncaptioned, except for signature, etc.

[carbro]

The grand jete pic is Pat Wilde for sure.

Odette wears a short tutu, so Grand Jete dancer was probably a Lead Swan. Was Wilde dancing that kind of role in early productions of the ballet? Even in a small company, I can't imagine Balanchine casting one of his ballerinas in a demi-solo role.

Tanny was the Greta Garbo of ballerinas

Perky, that comparison is quite wonderful!

[popularlibrary]

The grand jete pic is Pat Wilde for sure.

Odette wears a short tutu, so Grand Jete dancer was probably a Lead Swan. Was Wilde dancing that kind of role in early productions of the ballet? Even in a small company, I can't imagine Balanchine casting one of his ballerinas in a demi-solo role.

Oh, but he did, whenever the spirit moved him. The jete is from a Swans' Pas de Trois in which he created a brilliant role for Wilde, one I saw her dance often. Carolyn George also danced it on occasion. I believe it was dropped, along with the third movement of Western Symphony, when Wilde retired. There was no other allegro virtuoso in the company at that time who quite matched her, not even Tallchief.

As for Balanchine's Swan Lake, in the 50s and early 60s it still had a group of Swan variations which eventually disappeared.

[carbro]

Thanks, pop. I'm ready to sign up for a trip in the Time Machine for those lost pas.

[Mme. Hermine]

save me a SEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rg]

in a footnote to balanchine's 1950s SWAN LAKE on stage, here's a publicity shot from the SWAN LAKE 'fantasie' balanchine arranged for the 1940 Twentieh Century Fox release of I WAS AN ADVENTURESS - featuring (center) V.Zorina (as "Swan Queen") and L. Christensen (as "Prince").

the dots on the left are unfortunately the same size and look as the 'dot' representing the shining moon in the background but these are holes (from a one-time binder?) in the photo and not part of the 'picture'.

[Mel Johnson]

This "Swan Lake" sketch is as much about Balanchine having fun with the movies as it is about entertainment. He does several highly illogical things, sometimes for theatrical effect, other times for the purpose of parody. I love it when he has Christensen wading (in armor) out into the lake and draping himself over the model "castle in the distance".

[rg]

another SWAN LAKE oddity: when i acquired this item, said to illustrate some aspect of I WAS AN ADVENTURESS - i thought huh? that certainly isn't zorina in front, and besides VZ wore black. then i revisited the film and i think i figured out the claim: this would appear to be a 'background' filming for the 'process shot' (if that's le mot juste) of a swanlake motif behind the opening credits. this shows some graphically 'grayed' swanmaiden dancers moving along an overhead diagonal behind the titles. thus this is not zorina but some stand in who in her white costuming was likely one of the ensemble dances.

still it's a curiosity connected to balanchine's curious creation.

[rg]

two more illustrations of GB's SWAN LAKE - the stage grouping shows the ter-arutunian prod. w/ Melissa Hayden as Odette and Peter Martins as the Prince - it is undated - in the ensemble of swan maidens, eventual balletmistress rosemary dunleavy is on the photo's right edge w/ renee estopinal behind to dunleavy's right.

the other studio shot, also undated, shows Maria Tallchief with a bit of beaton's design behind her.

[rg]

onetime postcard for sale at NYCB of TER-ARUTUNIAN's design for the '64 re-do of GB's SWAN LAKE.

the photo shows a designer's maquette, complete w/ crowned mechanical swan on converyor belt at back.