
Mia Slavenska bending back

images that haunt us









caption reads: MARFUSHKA / Martha Sleeper, the talented twelve-year old dancer, as she appears in one of her Russian numbers
photographer: Eugene P. Henry


Bee Jackson (1903–1933) was best known for dancing the Charleston, performed on Broadway, in the Ziegfeld Follies and in London, Vienna, and Paris. Tragically she died following an appendicitis operation at the age of 30.

Studio’s signature “Manassé” in both negatives, “Foto-Salon ‘Manassé'” copyright stamp in red ink, “Wiener Foto-Kurier” agency stamp on the reverse.

On verso: “Wiener Foto-Kurier” agency stamp, label with text: “Hedy Pfundmayer (sic), Primaballerina de l’opera a Vienne comme ‘Salome'”. Also, several annotations in pencil on the reverse, as: “Berhümte Solo Tänzerin […] die Tänzerin Pfundmaier (sic)”.


The Norwegian actress Sofie Parelius Krohn began her career as a dancer in 1911 at the Norwegian National Theatre. She trained with her mother, who was a choreographer and ballet teacher, and for a time with Michel Fokine. She took leading roles in Max Reinhardt’s productions in Berlin, including Prima Ballerina and Sumurun. Married to Tancred Ibsen, film director and screenwriter and grandson of Henrik Ibsen, she later became one of Norway’s most distinguished stage actresses, appearing in many works by Shaw, Wilde, Shakespeare and Ibsen.










