Scroll Through Ballet’s 20th-Century History in Photographs
November 3, 2014

Maria Tallchief as the Firebird in 1963

In honor of the upcoming Nutcracker season, the Huffington Post released a visual history of ballet in photographs, starting in the 1910s and ending in the 1990s (look for a very young Benjamin Millepied in the second-to-last photo, dancing with New York City Ballet). If you’re a ballet history buff—or even, better yet, if you aren’t—this is a fun scroll. You’ll see how what’s considered the “ideal” ballet body has changed over the 20th century, as well as differences in costumes, poses and what we define as virtuosity.

Keep an eye out for ballet stars like Nijinsky, Nureyev, Baryshnikov (there are quite a few shots of him), Tanaquil Le Clercq, Maria Tallchief and even Balanchine himself (with Suzanne Farrell, trying on diamonds in her costume for Jewels).

 

 

 

 

Photo by Jack Mitchell / Getty Images

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