The dancers Galina Virt and Tatiana Leman. Jewish pantomime ballet “Aleph” (part or cycle 1: Jewish Bas-Reliefs). Choreographed by Vera Shabshai (1929) | src FGIS GoscatalogDancers Galina Virt and Tatyana Leman in the Jewish pantomime ballet “Aleph” (part 1: Jewish bas-reliefs). Choreography by Vera Shabshay (1929) | src Nadezhda Lamanova
From 1926 to 1934, Vera Shabshai (1905 – 1988) created about a hundred miniatures ballets, mainly on Jewish themes, to the music of composers from the Society of Jewish Music. These choreographic numbers, combined into suites on a specific theme, made up the extensive repertoire of “Evenings of Jewish Dance” and “Evenings of Jewish Ballet and Pantomime” organized by Shabshai in the seasons of 1929-1930 and 1930-1931.
The most popular piece of these ballets was the Jewish pantomime-ballet “Aleph”, in which she said she wanted to express through plastic means various moments of Jewish history from antiquity to the present day.It consisted of six pats or cycles: “Jewish Bas-reliefs”, “Mourning dances”, “Jews in Spain”, “Shtetl dances” and the pantomime “ Smena / Change”.
Kitty Hoffmann (1900–1968) ~ De danseres Cilly Wang. Wenen | The dancer Cilli Wang, Wien, 1932 | src Fotocollectie Het Leven
Cilli Wang (1909-2005) was a Viennese dancer and cabaret artist. She attended dance classes at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts (Max Reinhardt Seminar) with Gertrud Bodenwieser. In 1928 she gave her first performance by dancing to the recitation of the actor Ernst Ceiss.
In the 1930s she evolved into a transformational artist, appearing on cabaret and small art stages, such as Erika Mann’s “Pfeffermühle” in Zurich, the “Catakombe” in Berlin and, not least, in “Lieben Augustin” and “Simpl” in Vienna.
Her trademark were pantomimic dances and performances with parodic, grotesque and illusionistic elements – which she herself called Verwandeleien / transformations (she also designs her own costumes as well as the puppets and props she used).
For her parodic performances, which were a rarity in her time, she was called the Pavlova of Parody. Initially performing in ensembles, her interest was in the connection between spoken word and movement. She created dance movement numbers to Goethe, Wilhelm Busch and Christian Morgenstern, which she recited herself. She parodied Hitler and made fun of folk dances. Her talent for comic numbers led to comparisons with Charlie Chaplin.
text adapted from Theatermuseum Wien & German wikipedia entry
Frieda Riess (1890-1954) ~ Maria Schreker, née Binder, opera Singer, wife of the composer Franz Schreker. Portrait in the main role in the opera ‘Der Schatzgräber’ (The Treasure Hunter), 1923 | src getty images
Charmian Bernays in a rabbit costume in front of her family home in Toowoomba, 1922 | src State Library of Queensland[Detail] Charmian Bernays poses dressed in a rabbit costume in front of her family home in Toowoomba (Queensland), age 8, 1922 | src State Library of Queensland
Oliver family. Carnival at chacra Santa Ana. Pepe Salas with Josefina’s bathing suit, San Vicente, Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 1910. Photograph hand colored by Josefina Oliver | src YO Josefina OliverSiblings García Oliver, San Vicente, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1909. Photograph hand colored by Josefina Oliver | src Josefina OliverCarnival. Pepe Salas with Josefina’s bathing suit, San Vicente, Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 1910 [Detail]Josefina Oliver and Pepe Salas cross dressed with niece, San Vicente, March 1908. Hand colored photograph by Josefina Oliver | src YO Josefina Oliver
‘(…) Sunday 8th- Very nice day. Carnival’s burial. (…) Pepe went hunting and I dressed up as a man having a succès d’estime. Pepe came a little later and I decked him out with a dress of mine, Porota wore her paper suit and after dressing up granddaddy ridiculously, we devoted ourselves to perpetuate the memory of our joke through photography. As the audience, all the people from the kitchen, Luis, his wife, his children and even the workman celebrating the scene (…)’. Diary 4, p. 257 and 258, March 1908
Postcard sent by Josefina to her sister Catalina, with her cross-dressed self-portrait, saying that it is a friend of Pepe, her husband.Nephews García Oliver cross-dressed, San Vicente, February 1910. Photograph hand colored by Josefina Oliver | src Josefina Oliver«Con los trajes trocados la Nena y Pedrito», San Vicente, February 1910 Hand colored photograph by Josefina Oliver | src YO Josefina Oliver
Josefina Oliver (1875-1956) began as a vocational photographer among her friends in 1897. Two years later, she takes the first one of her one hundred self-portraits and photographs her friends and relatives, houses’ interiors and landscapes in the family farm in San Vicente. Josefina, a common porteña, was almost invisible. Author of a luminous ouvre, hidden until 2006, as a consequence of a society that disregarded women’s inner self.
Josefina Oliver reflects this reality in her artistic work so far composed by 20 volumes of a personal diary, more than 2700 photographs, collages and postcards. Plenty of her shots are conceived with scenographies; she always develops them and paints the best copies with bright colors. She makes up twelve albums, four of them are wonderful and only have illuminated photographs. At the same time, a transversal humor appears behind her multiform ouvre.
In 1936 Australian audiences witnessed firsthand the spectacle of the Ballets Russes, with the arrival of the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet. This company, lead by Colonel Wassily de Basil, was one of a number of Ballets Russes companies that were formed in the wake of the dissolution of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes following his death in 1929. This first tour concluded in 1937 and was followed by two more tours by de Basil’s Ballets Russes companies, the Covent Garden Russian Ballet in 1938-1939 and Original Ballet Russe in 1939-1940.
Actress Nita Naldi in costume as Sally Lung in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 movie The Ten Commandments | src getty imagesActress Nita Naldi in costume as Sally Lung in The Ten Commandments (DeMille, 1923) [detail; headshot]
un regard oblique 