rg Posted April 16, 2010 Share Posted April 16, 2010 the attached scan shows a photo simply stamped: BALLET RUSSE DE MONTE CARLO (the word "Backstage" is handwritten on the back as well). i recongized with some confidence, Mary Ellen Moylan in the leading dancer's costume, but the others, in the costumes worn by ensmble, weren't overly familiar. former BRdMC dancer Joy Williams Brown, who can seen in a stage photo of this same production in Jack Anderson's THE ONE AND ONLY book about BRdMC, sent an email with the following identifications. <<Left to right: Mary Ellen Moylan, Pauline Goddard, Gertrude Tyven, and Yvonne Chouteau (leg on barre). On the floor Anna Istomina (Audrey Thomas). Checking Jack's book, they were all in the company together in the 1943-44 season.>> as the Balanchine catalogue notes: << 1940, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo: Solo parts (originally divided among several dancers) reworked for single ballerina, two male dancers, and supporting female dancer (with full corps de ballet); fourth movement of the Serenade (Tema Russo [with some passages omitted]), called RUSSIAN DANCE, inserted before concluding ELEGY, danced by four demi-soloists and ballerina; Tchaikovsky's original scoring adopted, rather than Antheil's; these revisions incorporated in all subsequent stagings. >> Link to comment
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