Don Q pas and the fan

[Brioche]

I hope this is the right place for this question.

Looking at a youtube video of Alina Cojocaru makes me wonder who was the first woman to use the fan during the fouettes in the coda. Lorena Feijoo at SF Ballet does it too as well as Diana Vishneva.

Does anyone know with whom this originated?

Thanks!

[Mel Johnson]

My nominee is Mia Slavenska in the '50s, and that probably because she forgot to take the wrist knot off after the variation.

"MIA! Don't forget to take the...oh, well, nevermind...."

[cubanmiamiboy]

That beautiful footage of Slavenska from the Ballet Russes movie dancing the end of the variation-(which by doing those backward sautees on pointe shows a totally different choreography from whatever Gorsky/Petipa is and has been generally used as the "standard")-finishes with her THROWING THE FAN ON THE FLOOR !

[Mel Johnson]

That's why I think of Slavenska whenever somebody mentions props. She would do all sorts of things if you just put something into her hand. Sort of a prop comedienne long before it became a genre by itself.