Taking a one day break from the woman who had so many children that I didn't know what to do…honestly, she needs a rest.
Instead today I focus on the theme for Sepia Saturday.
It was easy for me to come up with photos of dancers, but not of cross-dressing dancers. I have quite a few cross-dressers in vintage snapshots, but none of them dancers. But women from the early part of the 20th century as so called free spirits dressed as bohemians and gypsies…eventually every collector will find them.
These shots come from the Louise Bigelow Schnabel photo album. I have no idea who any of these ladies are, nor do I know why pretending to be a bohemian gypsy was so popular, but it was. Take a look at this Pinterest page to get an idea of the driving force behind what some women were doing. And an "explanation" was found at Wikipedia under Bohemian Style:
The "Dorelia" look Among female Bohemians in the early 20th century, the "gypsy look" was a recurring theme, popularised by, among others, Dorothy "Dorelia" McNeill (1881–1969), muse, lover and second wife of the painter Augustus John (1878–1961), whose full skirts and bright colours gave rise to the so-called "Dorelia look". Katherine Everett, née Olive, a former student of the Slade School of Art in London, has described McNeil's "tight fitting, hand-sewn, canary coloured bodice above a dark gathered flowing skirt, and her hair very black and gleaming, emphasiz[ing] the long silver earrings which were her only adornment".
And to see an old post I did for Sepia Saturday which also featured women playing gypsy click here.
As to cross-dressing dancers, I don't think there's a more enjoyable troupe than Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.
And frankly, I just can't get enough of these guys.
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Good job with this theme. Fans, gypsies, and and Indian maiden(perhaps???), what fun postcards.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was an easy one.
DeleteI imagine that dressing like a gypsy was a fairly easy choice when costumes were required.
ReplyDeleteMakes me think of dressing like a hobo for Halloween. At the last minute you could always put together a costume with what you found around the house.
DeleteThe first girl has a Spanish air about her, while the third girl wears what looks like a Polish/Russian ethnic dress. I think a lot of this costume style also has musical roots too from popular songs that created that Bohemian fad. The gypsy bandana of course still persists in today's rock/pop world, though mostly with aging male rockers losing their hair.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the third one had a bit of a Chinese feeling going for it, especially the head piece.
DeleteI loved the hand over hand bit in Go for Berocco - very funny indeed.
ReplyDeleteThey are very funny. Very good dancers, but also very funny.
DeleteFun stuff! Loved the clips. How did they do that thing with all the feathers?
ReplyDeleteI wondered that too. And did they have to put them all back into the costume every day or just sweep them up and toss them?
DeleteLoved it - both the images and the clips - and the information about the Bohemian Gypsy look.
ReplyDeleteI think I’d have embraced the Dorelia look!
ReplyDeleteDressing up as a gypsy was my favorite Halloween costume as a kid.
ReplyDelete