Celebrating July 4

[rg]

a news photo concerning July 4, 1926 in Boston, MA.

Russakoff's is a name previously unknown to me.

NYPL says the following:

<<

Russakoff, Senia. Dancer and Boston teacher. Died Dec 1981, age 88.

>>

I.E.D. notes one of S.R's pupils was Ray Bolger.

[sandik]

I love this image -- they are all so engaged!

[bart]

sandik, "engaged" is the perfect word. Everyone has her own action. According to the Wikipedia article on Russakoff, his school was known as the "school of leaps and bounds." Even the bath towel becomes a version of Isadora Duncan's scarf. Apparently the middle-aged man, wearing the strapped Grecian sandals, is Senia Russakoff himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senia_Russakoff

Somwhere I have a photo in which my mother as a very young woman, in the identical pose of the woman furthest to the right -- leg raised to the front in attitude. It would have been about the same time, the mid-to-late 20s. My mother is also at the beach, and is wearing a sleeker all-white bathing suit without the belt or bloomers. (A New York City look, rather than a Boston look, perhaps?) But the pose is identical, and the hair cut is quite similar. Very art deco. Very evocative of the period.

You may notice something odd about the wikipedia bio of Russakoff.. It says that he left Russia in 1907, after the Revolution. But the 1905 Revolution was not the sort of revolution that led to emigration. 1907 must be a typo for the year of the Bolshevik Revolution -- "1917."

[rg]

scan of a companion publicity photo from Boston, 1936.

this one looks as if it were partly intended to recall the beach romp of Anna Pavlova as Fanella in the DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI, the 'epic' 1915 silent film.

i don't recall seeing any photos of this vintage showing youngsters in such an acrobatic partnering mode.

[rg]

scan of another photo showing Senia Russakoff's School of Russian Ballet for its Independence Day event in Boston, 1926.