The can-can dancers of the Moulin Rouge in Paris, probably taken some time in the 1950s judging by the hair and make-up styles. Those flying leaps into the splits look really painful! The backstage photos showing them warming up before a performance are really interesting too, they were all so bendy!
The forecast heatwave seems to have arrived in full force today and it’s far too hot to actually dance, so here are some vintage photos of people dancing their socks off to keep us all entertained. Thinking about doing exercise is almost as good as doing it, right? Oh, and I’d like to know your(…)
Ruth St. Denis was one of the pioneering dancers of the early 20th Century who brought exotic Eastern dance to the West in the 1910s and 1920s. Born on a farm in New Jersey, she was a vaudeville dancer when her fascination with Egypt began in 1904 after she saw an advert for Egyptian Deities(…)
Was Fred Astaire the greatest dancer on the silver screen? Personally I think he probably was, I grew up glued to Fred and Ginger movies and absolutely adored him! Born Frederick Austerlitz in 1899, Fred took to the stage at an early age singing and dancing with his sister Adele in a vaudeville act (see(…)
A dancer in a fabulous Egyptian costume photographed in 1915. I love this costume, it reminds me of that scene from Cleopatra (the 1963 movie) when Elizabeth Taylor is brought into Rome at the end of that amazing procession. Some of the dancers in that are wearing Egyptian style wings similar these (although with much skimpier(…)
An “atomic pin-up girl” dancing in front of a (stemless) mushroom cloud. This photo was taken at Upshot-Knothole Dixie on 6th April 1953. I’m assuming somebody thought it was a good idea to photograph a pin-up shoot in from of an Nuclear test, but it all seems very strange now. I guess attitudes were very different in(…)
1930s actress and dancer Marilyn Miller photographed as a ballerina in 1932. Source and copyright: This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
Dancer and actor Gene Kelly in a publicity photo. The scar on his cheek was caused by a childhood accident – this is what he said about it: I’d love to ascribe that scar to some great dramatic event, but actually I fell off my tricycle when I was a sprout of five. Source and copyright:(…)
Legendary ballet dancer Anna Pavlova in costume as a bacchante in The Seasons. C. 1900 Source and copyright: This work is in the public domain in Russia according to article 1256 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.