Costume & Dance Historian
When I was in LA last month I was able to go and see the wonderful exhibition Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage at LACMA. The exhibition runs until January 7, 2018. It is a wonderful opportunity to see the costume and set designs created by Marc Chagall. Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage showcases 41 costumes and nearly 100 designs… Continue reading Chagall: Fantasies for The Stage
I love autobiographies, I always have. There is something so personal and intriguing about how people choose to write about themselves - especially people in the arts where often a little theatrical sparkle is added! I was approached earlier this year to review Eva Maze’s Memoir, With Ballet in My Soul: Adventures of a Globetrotting Impresario.… Continue reading With Ballet in My Soul, Eva Maze.
At the New York Historical Society you can now see, on permanent display, what is surely the biggest Picasso in NYC! The canvas was once the front cloth for Le Tricorne, from 1919, designed by Picasso, and shows a traditional corrida scene. In 1928 Diaghilev cut the middle section cut out of the cloth and sold it… Continue reading Finding the Ballets Russes in NYC – Part Two.
For the next three months I will be living and working at Jacob's Pillow - the longest running dance festival in the USA and probably the most famous in the world. It is proving a pretty great experience so far with new artists and students arriving each week, as well as the huge team of… Continue reading Jacob’s Pillow!
Yesterday marked the 145th birthday of Ballets Russes impresario Serge Diaghilev - to celebrate this Google created a doodle in his honour. Without Diaghilev the arts and in particular ballet would be very different. The Ballets Russes was the most significant artistic enterprise of the C20th and it was led by the indomitable figure of Diaghilev.… Continue reading Ballets Russes Google Doodle
I have recently started an Instagram page where I will be sharing glimpses into my current projects and research. You can find me @history_babe
The Ballets Russes, and in particular their costumes, have been my passion since I was 15 years old and found an old exhibition catalogue in a second-hand bookshop. The catalogue was from the National Gallery of Australia's 1999 exhibition, From Russia with Love, and contained a picture of this costume for a knight from the 1910 production of Firebird. I… Continue reading What started it all …
Anna Pavlova, b. 1881 - d. 1931 was most famous for her performance of the divertissement The Swan or The Dying Swan. The elaborate feathered tutu she wore has always fascinated me - How was it made? Does it survive? Several years ago I began working as a volunteer at the Museum of London which houses, amongst its vast collection,… Continue reading A swan song …
Since I was a teenager I have loved the idea of the making dolls dressed as characters from famous ballets. Last year I began making a small range of dolls and characters which I sell through my etsy shop, I also take custom orders: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheRedShoesVintage?ref=hdr_shop_menu
American Ballet Theatre this season is presenting two ballets from the bright and colourful canon of the Ballets Russes and Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. On the 6th of June ABT opened The Golden Cockerel, a reworked version of the popular 1937 production created for the Royal Danish Ballet in 2012. Please see my… Continue reading Two treasures of The Russian Ballet at ABT
