Who are the dancers on the cover of Gail Grant's book?

[bart]

Can anyone identify the two dancers depicted on the cover of the paperback edition of Gail Grant's Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet? And the ballet? Here's the photo:

http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Manual-Dic...7725&sr=1-1

The woman's face looks familiar (and quite lovely in an old fashioned way Romantic), but I can't place it. And the man's headdress is ... remarkable!

[rg]

this is not the edition i have; mine is older.

i assume you don't have it yourself b/c i'd guess they'd have the cover foto identified.

my guess: markova and dolin?

perhaps some version the bluebird? and florine?

only guessing here i've seen this cover over the years on various book shelves and never made a point of noting the dancers' ident.

someone on BT is bound to know or certain.

[bart]

i'd guess they'd have the cover foto identified.

I have the Dover third edition, the same being offered for sale by Amazon. The only identification I can find is "Cover design by Paul E. Kennedy."

my guess: markova and dolin?

I wondered about Markova. But the look is softer (younger?) than most photos I've seen. It's certainly softer than the Firebird photo (c. 1945) that's on another thread. Would Bluebird/Florine have been something they did when they first joined together to form a company in the 30s? In that case she could still have been in her twenties.

someone on BT is bound to know or certain.

That's for sure!

Thanks, rg, for starting us off.

[Hans]

I am also curious as to the identities of the dancers on the cover of Cyril Beaumont's The Cecchetti Method of Classical Ballet.

[rg]

re: Cecchetti Method - again my copies are much earlier editions, and hardcover, but this cover design would appear to be a 'flopped' version of a somewhat well known photo of the nijinska/balanchine ROMEO AND JULIET for diaghilev's ballets russes. i think there's a similar photo of lifar w/ karsavina (the first cast) but this one is posted, flopped, at the following link:

http://www.geocities.com/annesteenhoven/lifar1.jpg

[Hans]

I think that is exactly the same photo. It is quite a strange pose, and as Lifar's leg is not behind him at all I was surprised it was chosen for the cover of a textbook about ballet technique. I can only assume that his leg is where it's supposed to be according to the choreographer, or that he was moving to a different pose as the photo was taken.

[rg]

duh: i failed to note that the dancer was alice nikitina - balanchine's alternate terpsichore in the first run of APOLLON.

he's on record saying that nikitina - not to be confused w/ varvara nikitina - the first princess florine - was: awwwwful.