Name the dancers and the work

[rg]

the attached scan shows a publicity photo of two dancers on the occasion of the work shown.

perhaps the dancers might be easier to name than the duet they're performing, or maybe not.

(the discoloration comes from the oxidized(?) glue attaching the publicity label identifying the photo.)

a scan of the caption's text will follow in a day or so.

[Mme. Hermine]

lichine and riabouchinska?

[rg]

correct.

now what are they performing?

[Mme. Hermine]

i guess we can rule out graduation ball?

[rg]

yes, you can.

[atm711]

The free flowing hair is unusual for the time---and the lack of ribbons on her shoes suggests a Hollywood film.....

[Mme. Hermine]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038718/

this?

[Mme. Hermine]

oops guess not, if it's animation!

[rg]

you were correct the first time, P.

the animators filmed DL & TR and turned their filmed dance into a silhouette number, so they more or less animate their own animation.

see attached:

[Mme. Hermine]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! thanks, rg!!!! how interesting!!!!

[bart]

rg, what a great puzzler. I hope this can become a regular feature.

I thought Leon Danielian might be the man (similar nose in profile). But I had no clue about the woman. Nor had I ever heard about the Disney film -- or the technique of constructing animation from filmed human silouette.

A very ejoyable learning experience. I'm most impressed by the detective team of Mme. Hermine and atm711. I myself tried a little cheating on Google, to no avail.

Thanks, rg!

[Mme. Hermine]

aw shucks, bart!

was she not the model for the dancing hippo in fantasia?

[rg]

Disney is about to come with a book on Disney's dance-related animations by Mindy Aloff. (I believe the book, now in production, is due out in early '09.) There, as I understand it, we'll learn much about the dance sources used by Disney artists. Hyacinth Hippo had more than one model,as I understand it, as, I suppose, did other characters featured in FANTASIA and other animations.

if i learn anything more precise about pub. date, etc. i'll post it here.

[Paul Parish]

What a great idea for a book -- and an EXCELLENT writer.

Disney chorreography is seriously under-rated -- not by Chchoreographers (Mark Morris says upon any occasion that the best choreography for hte Nutcracker EVER was in hte Disney "Fantasia.") But dance-goers, dance-lovers tend not to give Disney proper respect. ALL Disney cartoons are balletic -- my current favorit is TOy Story 2; the scene in the airport, with the conveyor belts, is like Symphony in 3 movements.

Disney is about to come with a book on Disney's dance-related animations by Mindy Aloff. (I believe the book, now in production, is due out in early '09.) There, as I understand it, we'll learn much about the dance sources used by Disney artists. Hyacinth Hippo had more than one model,as I understand it, as, I suppose, did other characters featured in FANTASIA and other animations.

if i learn anything more precise about pub. date, etc. i'll post it here.

[rg]

when there was a conf. at the NYPL about LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS arlene croce wanted to give a talk about Disney's FANTASIA version being the best there was but she couldn't get the rigths to show the segement to the public at her talk, thus, if mem. serves scrapping the idea of the presentation altogether.

still she published a fine essay about FANTASIA.

[Paul Parish]

I didn't know that Croce had written anything baout Fantasia, but I am not surprised to hear that she admires it -- and glad to hear it. I looked it up, if anyone else wants to, and found it in "Sight Lines " as a section of an article about Alvin Nikolais called "Visualizations (pp 178-180). A usual, she's brilliant and pithy -- I wish it were longer.

when there was a conf. at the NYPL about LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS arlene croce wanted to give a talk about Disney's FANTASIA version being the best there was but she couldn't get the rigths to show the segement to the public at her talk, thus, if mem. serves scrapping the idea of the presentation altogether.

still she published a fine essay about FANTASIA.

[rg]

i forgot that AC's commentary about FANTASIA was the tag-on to a riff on Nikolais. i rem. i went w/ her to the ziegfeld theater on 54th st. after seeing something at city center on 55th st. the year she wrote that piece to see the Disney movie. she went, as i tagged along, with her expressed purpose of renewing her acquaintance w/ the movie and writing about it for THE NEW YORKER.

[bart]

Google turned up a 1999 Ballet Talk discussion on "classicism" which includes the following, from Kevin Ng:

Marc [Haegeman] mentioned Walt Disney. Actually the Nutcracker Suite in the Walt Disney cartoon "Fantasia" offered me far more kinaesthetic and visual excitement as well as poetry than many dull productions nowadays, e.g. Stephen Jefferies' production for Hong Kong Ballet. I urge dance-lovers to rewatch "Fantasia"! Arlene Croce wrote that Disney employed ballet dancers to model the steps for 'Dance of the Hours' - Irina Baronova, David Lichine, Tatiana Riabouchinska.

The thread is here: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...30&start=30