not mysterious, but murky photo

[rg]

this is a higher than usual resolution scan b/c the original photo print is to small.

i will note the names of the dancers and the company and the date handwritten on the back a little time goes by.

presumably the original owner and annotator of the photo knew his ballet.

[Mel Johnson]

The wig on the Poet makes me think of Paul Petroff ca. 1940, but that doesn't look like the de Basil Ballets Russes set for "Sylphides" that I remember. Anyway, the corps is doing the "rosin-box step", just as they should at that point in the Nocturne.

[Amy Reusch]

Even if it is murky, it's a beautiful shot.... so full of moment & movement... I almost hear the music.

[bart]

It's almost as if it were an Impressionist painting rather than a 20th century photograph. The illuminated faces of the women on the far lerft remind me of the effect of 19th century stage lighting on some of Degas' dancers. The tutus have a luminescence one also finds in Degas.

For example (though the tone is less dark):

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas...dance-class.jpg

Or here though these figures are more detailed):

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Two-Dancers-...rs_i290834_.htm

Or here (though this is of a singer rather than a dancer):

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas...inger-glove.jpg

[rg]

mid-way here, let me confirm that Mel's identification of Paul Petroff jibes with the annotation on the photo's back.

[Mme. Hermine]

with riabouchinska?

[Mme. Hermine]

as a really interesting aside, i found this link which has 3 clips of ballet russe home movies taken in australia, one of which features paul petroff:

http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/ball...te-carlo/clip2/

[atm711]

Nana Gollner?

[Mel Johnson]

Vera Nemtchinova? She used to dance that part (the "massage") in the Nocturne.

[rg]

the attached scan shows the back of the photo at the top of this thread.

i assume the writer knew his dancers and that this snapshot-size ballet photo shows Petroff and Danilova in the Pas de Deux of LES SYLPHIDES - undernearth the photo a secondary backing gives Jan. 25, 1938 as the date of this photo, which was taken during a run that began on Jan. 21 2 26.

the lettering that's cut off by the trimming of the photo says:de Basil's Ballets Russes as does the secondary backing.

[Mel Johnson]

That's interesting; I recall more tree units hung from the flies across the backdrop curtain in the de Basil set. But I don't think that this is the pas de deux. It's the Nocturne.

[rg]

thanks, Mel. i take your correction of the one-time owner's captioning.

i didn't check against any of my vids, but when i do, expect to see what you find to be true.

the dancer said to be Danilova is impressively full of the kind of accent, reach, and expansiveness that one associates w/ what Balanchine much stressed in the years that followed, once his own NYCB got up a running.