Showing Results 1 - 10 of 40
This manuscript copy of a prayer book, containing prayers and hymns for the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, was written out by David Mendes Franco. It shows David dancing before God and his…
The female figure, especially dancers, were a favorite subject for Moses Soyer. He was especially inspired by Edgar Degas and Honoré Daumier, whose paintings he had the opportunity to examine…
At home they called her “dummy” and other names like that because she was always so quiet and still, never stirring when she was called. When she was nine years old, she went to school and began…
The cover of the theater program for the Ballets Russes’ seventh season is illustrated with an image of Vaslav Nijinsky wearing a costume designed by Léon Bakst for the ballet L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune…
Very little is known about Rahlo Jammele, who performed so-called Moorish dances at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (Columbian Exposition) “Turkish Village” pavilion. Fair materials described her as “a…
Mr. Engel concludes that the music to my songs is not folk, because, in his opinion, it includes the rhythms of waltz music and mazurkas, and these dance rhythms are used even in the cases where I…
Among the figures of contemporary ballet on the Maryinsky’s stage, Mathilda Kshesinskaya constitutes a phenomenon of exceptional interest. Her name enjoys great fame, her talent—unusually brilliant…
“Y’minah, Y’minah,” c. 1941. Photo credit: The Dorot Jewish Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
Some decades ago Jewish badkhonim-actors [jesters] were still a very common phenomenon. Most of the time the badkhn was not only an entertainer improvising rhymes and funny sayings, but also an actor…
Oh, Ghingeli, my bleeding heart,
Who is this guy who dreams in snow
And drags his feet like a pair of logs
In the middle of the street at night?
It is the rascal Moyshe-Leyb,
Who will freeze to…