Le Clercq, Tanaquil. (1929–2000). Signed Photograph in Balanchine's "Metamorphoses".
Rare signed photograph of the French-American dancer whose career was cut short by paralysis, performing en pointe in an exotic Karinska costume in the now lost 1952 Balanchine ballet Metamorphoses. Inscribed to Paul McMahon. Handstamp of New York City Ballet to verso. 10 x 8 inches (25.3 x 20.6 cm). Margins slightly worn; in fine good condition overall.
When Le Clercq was fifteen years old, famed choreographer George Balanchine [later Le Clercq's husband from 1952 to 1969] asked her to perform with him in a dance he choreographed for a polio charity benefit. In an eerie portent of things to come (Le Clercq would contract polio at twenty-seven and never recover mobility in her legs), he played a character named Polio, and Le Clercq was his victim who became paralyzed and fell to the floor.
Set to Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber and premiered by the New York City Ballet in New York on November 25, 1952, Metamorphoses was a fantasy on insectile life: the dancers were costumed as bug-inspired, winged beings with antennae, in a decor of light-reflective coat hangers and Chinese panels. The adagio featured a beetle, inspired by Kafka, and a sort of butterfly; the finale was dominated by dancers in giant wings. Along with those of other elaborately produced ballets, including Tyl Ulenspiegel and Renard, costumes for Metamorphoses were destroyed in a warehouse fire in 1953; all three ballets were lost.
From the collection of Paul McMahon, a critic, photographer and artist who worked for more than 13 years touring with Marlene Dietrich as the icon’s stage manager, announcer, dresser, secretary and escort, and later spent 25 years as an arts and entertainment reviewer and photographer with Gay Community News, Esplanade, Tommy’s Connection, The Mirror, Bay Windows and other publications.
Le Clercq, Tanaquil. (1929–2000). Signed Photograph in Balanchine's "Metamorphoses".
Rare signed photograph of the French-American dancer whose career was cut short by paralysis, performing en pointe in an exotic Karinska costume in the now lost 1952 Balanchine ballet Metamorphoses. Inscribed to Paul McMahon. Handstamp of New York City Ballet to verso. 10 x 8 inches (25.3 x 20.6 cm). Margins slightly worn; in fine good condition overall.
When Le Clercq was fifteen years old, famed choreographer George Balanchine [later Le Clercq's husband from 1952 to 1969] asked her to perform with him in a dance he choreographed for a polio charity benefit. In an eerie portent of things to come (Le Clercq would contract polio at twenty-seven and never recover mobility in her legs), he played a character named Polio, and Le Clercq was his victim who became paralyzed and fell to the floor.
Set to Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber and premiered by the New York City Ballet in New York on November 25, 1952, Metamorphoses was a fantasy on insectile life: the dancers were costumed as bug-inspired, winged beings with antennae, in a decor of light-reflective coat hangers and Chinese panels. The adagio featured a beetle, inspired by Kafka, and a sort of butterfly; the finale was dominated by dancers in giant wings. Along with those of other elaborately produced ballets, including Tyl Ulenspiegel and Renard, costumes for Metamorphoses were destroyed in a warehouse fire in 1953; all three ballets were lost.
From the collection of Paul McMahon, a critic, photographer and artist who worked for more than 13 years touring with Marlene Dietrich as the icon’s stage manager, announcer, dresser, secretary and escort, and later spent 25 years as an arts and entertainment reviewer and photographer with Gay Community News, Esplanade, Tommy’s Connection, The Mirror, Bay Windows and other publications.