lost in leningrad

Sarena (Сарина) // 21 // studying ballet mastering @ САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКАЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ КОНСЕРВАТОРИЯ имени Н.А. РИМСКОГО-КОРСАКОВА (rimsky-korsakov conservatory) st petersburg, russia

[passioneperladanza]

English National Ballet, corps de ballet

Photo by Laurent Liotardo

[randombeautysls]

Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

[yoiness]

Artists of The Australian Ballet. Photography Kate Longley © School of American Ballet

[melmothblog]

Happy Birthday, Leon Bakst!

Leon Bakst produced lavish sets and costumes for the ballet stage. After graduating secondary school, he traveled to St. Petersburg to study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts as an unenrolled student, working as a book illustrator to support himself. In order to help pay the bills, he also taught art to the children of Grand Duke Vladimir. At his first exhibition, in 1889, he changed his surname, Rosenberg, which he was concerned would sound too Jewish and bad for business, to a shorter version of his mother’s maiden name Baxter: Bakst. 

He began exhibiting in the 1890’s with the Society of Watercolorists, as he continued his studies at the Academie Julian, making important connections with prominent artists. In the late 1890’s he founded, along with Sergei Diaghilev, the Mir Iskusstva, or “World of Art,” movement. He illustrated many graphics for their publication, drawing him praise and popularity. Until the end of the century, he continued to paint and receive commissions, from as high up as Tsar Nichols II himself. 

By 1909, he was mainly producing stage and costume designs, at first for Greek tragedies and then with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, a prominent ballerina group. Due to his Jewish religion, he was exiled from living in St. Petersburg, and was prohibited from living anywhere outside the pale of settlement, and so mainly resided in Western Europe. His set designs, along with those of Alexandre Benois, are recognized as revolutionizing stage design. Bakst died in 1924 of lung problems, having broken with the Ballet Russes and Diaghilev in 1918, although he continued to paint.

[barcarole]

Maya Plistetskaya in Paris, 1977.

[tanaquilleclercq]

New York City Ballet in Justin Peck’s “Year of the Rabbit”.  Photos by Paul Kolnik.

[bradleyschlagheck-deactivated20]

Company Class, Boston Ballet, Studio 7

photo: Lauren Pajer

[lasylphidedubolchoi]

Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake

Photos by Marina Dmitrieva

[fanonical]

hagrid’s resume is just the words ‘i like animals’ and then photos of him with all the pets he has ever had

it’s two hundred pages long. dumbledore hires him on the spot

[tutusandcake]

@marauderbunhead

[youngteeth]

This is Myrtle, the lady who owns the flower house, a house I have been obsessed with for years (the entire sidewalk and porch is covered with fake flowers and it stays that way year around.) I met her by chance today and got to see the inside of her house when I helped her carry shopping bags, which she was lugging around in the sweltering heat. She lives right up from downtown and walks down to the thrift stores all the time. Her ENTIRE house is covered in fake flowers, stuffed animals, figurines, vases, pictures, statues, etc. It is the most awesome house I have ever seen.

Check out the rest of the photos here.

[tutusandcake]

I AM BACK

anybody remember me or nah

[yoiness]

Nikolay Krusser

Swan and Cleaning

[pas-de-chat-saute-de-chat]

same

[verymaryanna]

this is actually me

[tutusandcake]

this must be one of the leonid yakobson girls (they're oUT OF CONTROL) bc if this were mariinka she would be literally skinned and set on fire by the costume ladies

[strechanadi]

Laura Hecquet, Hugo Marchand

Duo concertant

photo: I. Aubert

[kameliendame]

Chisato Katsura

ph. Andrej Uspenski

[englishballetandtea]

“Pre Show Swan Rituals!” of RDB’s Dans2Go Photo from Andreas Kaas’ ig.

[lasylphidedubolchoi]

Olga Spessivtseva as Giselle

[melmothblog]

Alena Kovaleva of Vaganova Ballet Academy, photographed by Katerina Kravstsova.