Dance and Costumes. Elna Matamoros

chap. 6.

      40 BLASIS, Traité…, pp. 125 & ss.; vid. infra, chap. 4. However, in his Code of Terpsichore… published eight years later these images no longer appear, being replaced by those of men and women dressed for dance.

      41 vid. e.g. fig. 3.6 - “Manières différentes de se poser en attitude.”

      42 vid. infra, fig. 11.1 - Studies of body expression in static poses.

      43 vid. infra, chap. 9.

      44 fig. 3.7 - This drawing of Isadora by Clará, from the catalogue of the Museo Reina Sofía is not linked to any particular choreography (as it is the case with other portraits of her; vid. infra, fig. 9.3). It is described, in its current title, as “Female Nude;” however, Isadora is not naked. Clará has been explicit in shading the parts of the body that Isadora exposed to the public: the arms, part of her back and her thighs; we even seem to guess part of her hip, although it would be covered under a thin layer of cloth. A further showing of how her body, although only partially exposed, seems to be seen completely by the spectator.

      45 DALY, Done into Dance… 1995, p. 163.

      46 TERRY, Isadora Duncan… 1963, p. 133. Her defence of femininity made her, however, ignore the man in dance.

      47 vid. infra, chap. 13.

      48 Ibidem.

      49 SHAWN, Every Little Movement… 1954, augm. 1963, pp. 81-82.

      50 DALY, Done into Dance…, p. 31. Probably, points out the author, her idea of ‘naked body’ would not reveal the body totally undressed, only unveiled in its forms, but with the details discreetly blurred.

      51 Cit. pos MAYNARD, American Modern Dancers… 1965, p. 43.

      52 DUNCAN, My Life… 1927, revis., p. 74.

      53 vid. e.g. fig. 3.8 - photography by Arnold Genthe; part of an extensive collection made between 1915 and 1923.

      54 vid. infra, chap. 9.

      55 See in chap. 9, how she wore Mariano Fortuny’s Delphos tunic, whose folds revealed her curves.

      56 For example, ‘skipping’ and other light jumps.

      57 About the physical degradation and excesses of her libertine life, we find numerous anecdotes and eloquent data; vid. Stern, Isadora Duncan und Sergei Yessennin… 1996.

      58 Title of the first version of Cléopâtre (vid. infra, chap. 12), premiered in March 1908 at the Mariinsky Theatre.

      59 B. NIJINSKA, Early Memoirs… 1981, reed., p. 228. Translated into English by her daughter, Irina NIJINSKA, these Early Memoirs collect Bronislava Nijinska’s remembrances from childhood till 1914. Rêverie Romantique, also premiered in the performances of March 1908, was a new version of Chopiniana (1907), incorporating parts from that previous piece and from Danses sur la musique de Chopin (1908).

      60 JOWITT, Time and the Dancing Image… 1988, p. 106.

      61 Thus we see, for example, in the un-retouched photographs of Nijinsky characterized for the ballet Schéhérazade, 1910; e.g. fig. 3.9 - Vaslav Nijninsky as the Golden Slave.

      62 cfr. infra, fig. 12.4 - Mikhail Mordkin, partner of Pavlova in The Pharaoh’s Daughter, in 1908; he also wore a unitard simulating bare arms and legs under his Egyptian costume.

      63 fig. 3.10 - Michel Fokine and Vera Fokina in Cléopâtre, in 1913; both wear the costume on bare skin.

      64 WOODCOCK, “Wardrobe”… 2010, p. 143.

      65 fig. 3.11 - Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose. “Romola Nijinsky described the costume as consisting of a close-fitting fine elastic silk jersey, covering his entire body, except part of his breast and arms, where bracelets of silk rose-petals bound his biceps… petals ‘some were ragged as from a dying flower; others were stiff and firm’… ‘Nijinsky’s make-up was conceived to personify a rose. His face was like that of a celestial insect, his eyebrows suggesting some beautiful beetle, which one might expect to find closest to the heart of the rose, and his mouth was like rose-petals’…”, we read in the informative card of the costume, today conserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum; cfr. “Theatre costume. Bakst” in V&A…, online.

      66 WOODCOCK, “Wardrobe”…, p. 143.

      67 R. NIJINSKY, Nijinsky… 1980, p. 136.

      68 fig. 3.12 - Costume design by Benois for the character of Albrecht. It was the cause of Nijinsky’s dismissal from the Imperial Theatres.

      69 For years, dancers in Russia continued to wear discreet shorts under the jacket, or a skirt that lengthened it.

      70 That’s how the designer remembered the scene. BENOIS, not without reason, also wondered if the naughty Diaghilev had not been aware, when he altered the dancer’s costume, of the scandal he was causing. The impresario saw in any provocation new reasons for success for his company. cfr. LIEVEN, The birth of the Ballets-Russes… 1956, reed., pp. 127-128.

      71 “The top half of his body seemed to belong to one person and the lower half to another.” Ibid., p. 323.

      72 L’Après-midi d’un faune. Choreography by Nijinsky with music by Claude Debussy. (Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune), inspired by the poem by Stetéphane Mallarmé. First performed in the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in May 1912.

      73 fig. 3.13 - Dancer and Nijinsky in Afternoon of a Faun.

      74 “Those who talk to us about art and poetry about this show are laughing at us. It is neither a graceful ego nor a deep production. We had an inappropriate faun with vile movements of erotic bestiality and gestures of heavy impudence. That’s all. And just whistles welcomed the over-expressive pantomime of this poorly constructed beast body, hideous from the front, even more hideous in profile. Th ese animal re alities, th e re al public will never accept them.” CALMETTE, “Un faux pas”, Le Figaro, 30.05.1912.

      75 “No role has shown Nijinsky as extraordinary as his latest creation of L’Après-Midi d’un Faune. No more greetings, no more jumps, just the attitudes and gestures of a half-conscious animal: he lies down, elbows, crouching, straightens up, moves forward, moves backwards with movements that are sometimes slow, sometimes jerky, nervous, angular; his eyes spy, his arms stretch out, his hand opens wide, his fingers together tight against each other,