I came across all these wonderful photos of chorus girls (a ton after the jump), most anonymous, though they reminded me of Anna Held, of course, as well as Busby Berkeley’s dancers and the dancers of the Quadrille Naturaliste. (And I’m starting out my first pinterest board in high style under the handle encycloexquisit, if [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1309
The singularly fabulous Bollywood sensation, Helen, makes a cameo in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. And why not? She appeared in over 500 Indian films during the second half of the 20th century, shimmering across the screen in a gyrating, hip-thrusting explosion of spangles. Her role, almost inevitably, was that of the wayward, Anglo-Indian vamp. (Helen [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=630
There was only one ballerina who could make the tutu what it is, and was, in 1832, Marie Taglioni, the era’s superstar, and the dancer whose style defined the Romantic ballet movement. In her leading role as an airy woodlands sprite in La Sylphide, Taglioni brought evervescence, lightness and grace to the stage unlike any [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=603
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd4rqf7_Mdg[/youtube] Between the scandalous Tango and the salacious Samba, there came the Maxixe, the early 20th century’s forgotten dance sensation. The Maxixe was just naughty enough to become popular worldwide between 1910 and 1915, but not naughty enough to be remembered. The dance came from Brazil, where its name was pronounced ‘ ‘mashish,’ and was [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=422
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tnV6NunQgw[/youtube]A lovely sunny picnic yesterday, and snow today. All I can say is, come on, haste thee, nymph. I’m dying for spring. So this ridiculously spring-y song is a classic summons to the season, with words taken from John Milton’s 1645 lyric poem L’Allegro, an ode to the goddess Mirth, and set to music by [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=156
