grouping from Balanchine's Pas de Neuf for SWAN LAKE

[rg]

when the recently acquired publicity photo arrived i knew little more about it beyond the facts that it documented a moment from Balanchine's 1951, Cecil Beaton-designed SWAN LAKE, in particular the ballet's Pas de Neuf.

by day's end, thanks to some leads from colleagues, the scan reached Yvonne Mounsey in California - as she created the lead of this pas i suspected it might be she in the picture, but could not say so confidently (my dance-watching days of NYCB post-dated her career there) eventually, the following communication came from a young woman working with Mounsey these days, who has email and who thus had the photo on her screen for YM to comment on.

here's what Mounsey said to her freind with the email:

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(Looking at the photo, dancers from left to right:)

Arlouine Case / Kaye Sargent / (Helen Kramer?) / Barbara Milberg / Yvonne Mounsey / Ann Crowell / Una Kai / (?)

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even after looking at a higher resolution scan YM said she couldn't identify the two question-marked dancers.

[Helene]

Mounsey's arms are lovely!

[cubanmiamiboy]

Wow...those winged costumes reminded me a lot of that of Anna Sobeshchanskaya-(love'em, BTW)

http://wpcontent.answcdn.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Swanlakesobechshanskaya.jpg/220px-Swanlakesobechshanskaya.jpg

[perky]

I've seen the top portion before on those lovely Beaton swan costumes but never the wings! They seem to sit low on the back of the dancers. Are they attached to the bodice or the skirt?

[rg]

a colleague who just happened to be having lunch with B. Milberg Fisher showed her the scan, and she offered the following identifications:

l-r: Arlouine Case,Toni Wortham, Barbara Walczak (?), Barbara Milberg,

Mounsey, Jane Mason (?), Una Kai, Doris Breckenridge.

[rg]

B.M.Fisher has sent the following message in an email about the photo in which she appears, what she calls 'the winners' is a caption decided by a gathering of dancers from her generation, who recently met for an annual get-together.

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We spent some time on the Swan Lake Pas de Neuf photo, and finally agreed as to the the dancers. Actually, two dancers are missing from the photograph because they are outside the frame--one on either end. What we did come up with was the following (all from left to right):

3 in the back (most upstage): Tomi Wortham Barbara Milberg Una Kai

3 in the middle: Arlouine Case Barbara Walczak Barbara Bocher

Principle dancer: (downstage center): Yvonne Mounsey

The dancer at the far right in the picture was a cause for speculation. We agreed it might have been Jillana, Constance Garfield, or Doris Breckenridge. As Mr. B choreographed Swan Lake for us in 1951 and all three were in the company at the time, these are good candidates. We figure the photo was taken in 1951or 1952.

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