Riabouchinska, Tatiana. (1917 - 2000)
Signed Photographs
Striking signed original 8 x 10 inch Maurice Seymour photograph, boldy signed and inscribed in 1944 by Riabouchinska. Sold together with a glossy reprint photograph from Riabouchinska's personal collection, a copy of a photograph inscribed to her by the popular film and television actress Yvonne De Carlo (1922 - 2007): "To the 'one and only' Riabouchinska. From a (might've been) ballerina. Affectionately, Yvonne de Carlo 82."The "Russian-born dancer and teacher was the oldest of the “baby ballerinas,” the three teenage dancers who in the 1930s captured public attention and attracted an audience to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the company formed to fill the gap left by the dissolution of the renowned Ballets Russes following the death of impresario Sergey Diaghilev in 1929. She was known for her speed, her light, delicate style, her musicality, and her sensitive interpretation of roles. To many, however, she was also known in a completely different light—as the “model” for the hippopotamus ballerina in the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia (1940), whose artists had made rehearsal sketches of her. Riabouchinska escaped from Russia with family members during the Russian Revolution and settled in Paris. She was performing with a variety show, the Chauve Souris, when George Balanchine discovered her and signed her for the Ballet Russe, with which she danced from 1932 to 1942 and again in 1947. Among her most notable roles for the company were the Child in Jeux d’enfants, the Mistress of Ceremonies in Cotillon, the title role in Le Coq d’or, the Florentine Beauty in Paganini, Frivolity in Les Présages, and the Prelude in Les Sylphides. In another of her most famous roles, the Romantic Girl in Graduation Ball, she was partnered by the ballet’s choreographer, David Lichine, whom she married in 1943." (Encyclopedia Britannica Online) (6064)
Signed Photograph Dance