Désirée Lubovska, 1918

Marcia Mishkin Stein :: “Russian” dancer Désirée Lubovska (aka Mme Lubowska), 1918. Désirée Lubovska was not actually Russian. It was the stage name of American born dancer Winniefred Foote. | src Worthpoint
Marcia Mishkin Stein :: “Russian” dancer Désirée Lubovska (aka Mme Lubowska), 1918. | src Worthpoint

A whimsical avant-garde portrait of Lubovska, the erotic Orientalist ballerina, as she strikes a dramatic pose in a risqué costume. This image was used to help promote Lubovska’s turn in Charles Dillingham’s musical spectacle “Everything” that played at New York City’s Hippodrome Theater and was accompanied by music by John Phillip Sousa. Mlle. Lubovska or Lubowska, as she was known, was born in Minnesota; she invented a mysterious Russian past as a way of capitalizing on the glamour of Pavlova, who was at the time, the reigning queen of ballet. Her romantic origin story also lent an air of mystery to her “Egyptian dances” as they were billed.

Marcia Mishkin Stein :: “Russian” dancer Désirée Lubovska (aka Mme Lubowska), 1918 (full size)

Ludmilla Speranzewa, 1926

Balletdanseres Ludmilla Speranzewa, 1e danseres Theater te Moskou, die momenteel in Berlijn succesvol is. 1926. Ballet dancer Ludmilla Speranzewa, 1st ballerina at Moscow Theater, who is currently successful in Berlin, 1926. Spaarnestad Photo. Het Leven magazine. | src Het Geheugen

Berber and Droste, 1922

Atelier d’Ora ~ Benda :: Die Tänzer Anita Berber und Sebastian Droste, aus “Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase”, 1922 | Dancers Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in ‘Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy’, 1922 | src Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg

Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy, 1922

Atelier d’Ora ~ Benda :: Die Tänzer Anita Berber und Sebastian Droste in der Tanzszene “Märtyrer”, aus “Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase”, 1922 | Dancers Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in A dance scene from “Martyr”, from ‘Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy’, 1922 | src Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg

Vice, Horror and Ecstasy, 1922

Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in Martyrs, scene from ‘Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy’. Photographed by Madame d’Ora
© Madame d’Ora /​ Privatsammlung, Wien
Anita Berber und Sebastian Droste in ihres Tanzstücks «Märtyrer». Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase, 1922
foto: Atelier d’Ora, Wien | src Getty Images
Atelier d’Ora ~ Benda ~ Die Verführung des heiligen Sebastian. Die Tänzer Anita Berber und Sebastian Droste, aus “Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase”, 1922
The Seduction of Saint Sebastian. Dancers Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in ‘Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy’, 1922 |
src MK&G ~ Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe

Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy, 1922

Atelier d’Ora ~ Benda :: Die Tänzer Anita Berber und Sebastian Droste in der Tanzszene “Märtyrer”, aus “Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase”, 1922 | Dancers Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in dance scene of “Martyr”, from ‘Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy’, 1922 | src Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg