rg Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 i wonder if anyone with a interest in and a familiarity with 20th c. american ballet can name the dancers and/or the circumstances of this photo. i needed to read the captioning on the back of the photo, but once i did, i thought: oh, now i see... Link to comment
Barbara Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 To me the man looks a little like Eugene Loring. Link to comment
rg Posted July 27, 2008 Author Share Posted July 27, 2008 the man is not loring, if the caption is correct. the caption will be posted eventually, in a day or two. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 gisela caccialanza? (not sure off the bat what either of them looked like exactly). Link to comment
rg Posted July 27, 2008 Author Share Posted July 27, 2008 not Littlefield nor Caccialanza. Link to comment
rg Posted July 27, 2008 Author Share Posted July 27, 2008 meanwhile, here's a scan of a headshot of Catherine Littlefield. it is undated but was used, apparently, on Aug. 1, 1951 to note Littlefield's supervision of "all the choregraphy on James Melton's 'Ford Festival'." ("Little Giant" is the name of the particular work being promoted here.) Link to comment
Estelle Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 i wonder if anyone with a interest in and a familiarity with 20th c. american ballet can name the dancers and/or the circumstances of this photo.i needed to read the captioning on the back of the photo, but once i did, i thought: oh, now i see... The costume of the man looks somewhat Spanish... Is it from a production of "Don Quixote" ? I had also thought about Massine's "The Three-Cornered Hat" but the woman's costume doesn't seem related to that balle( (what bizarre asymetric sleeves...) Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 Right, I wonder if these people aren't better known for other than dancing and that these costumes aren't cobbled together from separate shows. Link to comment
rg Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 another scan, of a photo i don't own, showing the same dancer (in different circumstances) from the duo starting this thread. maybe it will help? Link to comment
dancer100 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 I think it's Elsie Reiman. I'm not sure about the male dancer though. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Is this a production of the Nutcracker...? (The guy from the Spanish Dance, and the girl as a Shepherdess...you know, from the Marzipan's Mirlitons music ?) Link to comment
atm711 Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 In the first photo I thought of Leda Anchutina who had the same delicate physique, but, then, the second photo didn't look like her... Link to comment
rg Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 dancer100 has correctly identified the female dancer. i will post further identifications soon, tho the second reiman photo doesn't give the name of any particular work. Link to comment
bart Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Right, I wonder if these people aren't better known for other than dancing and that these costumes aren't cobbled together from separate shows. I've been enjoying rg's photo threads so much. Mel's question made me wonder about the functdion/purpose of this sort of photographic production. Were they intended for publicity for the dancers? for a tour? for a specific engagement? Were they sold? given to fans at the stage door? Link to comment
rg Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 mostly photos were taken for publicity purposes and sent to various publications - this before the days when one could send digital files by email. (a number of such items that i've acquired have the newspaper printing and caption pasted on the back. these examples were archived by the paper for future re-use, i suppose.) some 'bigger' names might have their assistants or fan club leaders have headshots on hand for fans, i suppose. of course there were always any number that of photos were taken 'unoffically' by fans for sale to other fans and as 'offerings' of admiration to the artist in question. some photo sessions were conducted for specific stories and publications, including souvenir programs etc. performance shots were made for daily reviews, perhaps, and for brochures promoting a company's repertory seasons, etc. Link to comment
bart Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Thank you, rg. You mention "souvenir programs." I do remember several of those at home when I was a child and how fascinated I was by them. I can still see photos of Markova and Dolin. It was a London Festival Ballet annual, I believe. In looking for Reiman, I found a reference that mentioned that she was one of the Muses in the original (Adolph Bolm's) Apollo, along with Ruth Page and Berenice Holmes. Then I found her obituary in the NY Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...75BC0A965958260 About the man in this photo. I got curious about your question and located an identical photo for sale on the internet. I don't want to spoil it for others -- and I don't know how accurate the description is -- but are the initials of the man's name "D.R."? Link to comment
rg Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 there are no rules here, one can seek indentification information anyware one's curiosity leads. and yes, the initials for the male dancer w/reiman are D.R. (i'm not sure, btw, i'd have recognized either dancer w/o the help the caption on the photo's back.) Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Is that Dmitri Romanoff? I was looking for the telltale resemblance in Reiman to Imogene Coca, which was so obvious in the 60s, when I first met her. Romanoff would be about contemporary as a dancer with her. I guess what had me buffaloed was the closeness of the dancers to the back wall, to minimize shadows. His toes must be squished against the baseboard, thus creating a less-than-topnotch picture while kneeling. Likewise, their hands seem rather spidery, with the flyaway thumbs that neither of them had while I was a student. Link to comment
rg Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 and the caption says: ELSIE REIMAN. {corrected in pencil: Elise Reiman} DIMITRI ROMANOFF. {in further handwriting: "in Ballet of 'La Traviata.'} the photo was in the reference library of the [san Francisco] Examiner} the date Nov. 23, 1933 is stamped on the back as well. the attached scan shows what's written on the back of the other Reiman foto above: Link to comment
bart Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 "The San Francisco Operatic and Ballet School"? Was that attached to the S.F. Opera? I'm glad they corrected the "Elsie". Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Both the San Francisco Opera and Ballet were founded under the same shield in 1932-33. The Ballet School was supposed to train dancers from the very start to provide divertissements in the operas, but from its first season, it gave freestanding ballet performances. Its first director was Adolph Bolm, who attracted some of the best American talent to dance, along with fellow Russian expats, like Romanoff. Link to comment
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