Showing posts with label dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dance. Show all posts

Saturday, January 3, 2026

alas, Grace Ripley's camouflaged gown has arrived

Ruth St. Denis in costume (NYPL)
Anon, "TIS HERE! THE CAMOUFLAGE GOWN! FAIR ARTIST HOOVERIZES DRESS in Oakland Tribune (Oakland CA), September 2, 1927—

It's here!

The "Camouflage Gown," last word in elusiveness, has arrived. It Is women's contribution to the war economics of today. and the first example of "Hooverized dress."

No matter what the fashions may be in the future, the "Camouflage Gown" will never be conspicuous by reason of being "out of style." No matter what women wear, no matter what the modes of the future will bring, the "Camouflage gown" will always be en rapport.

For the "Camouflage gown," according to its inventor, will never go out of style! Fashions may come and fashions may go, but the owner of this latest invention in feminine accoutrement will not have to pay the bill. She'll just don the "camouflage"—and laugh at the madly changing modes!

The "Camouflage gown" is not invisible, like a camouflaged cannon or lamp-post or army mule. It is just invisible as to details, color and beside other gowns. In other words, everything about it is inconspicuous—and it never can be singled out as being different from the rest, though it is.

Miss Grace Ripley [later on the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design] inventor of, the new gown, is a visitor here after having been for some time past in Los Angeles designing tor Ruth St. Denis. Her home is in Boston, whee she is famous as a designer of wonderful costumes. She is at present at the St. Francis in San Francisco on a visit, and has promised several of the new gowns to local society women.

"A gown can be so perfectly proportioned, following ancient lines," she declares, "by modernizing the old Greek costumes, and so perfectly harmonized in color, that it can never grow out of style. I have been experimenting, and have gowns that have been in fashion for years.

"In this day of conservation I have decided to offer this system of gown design as my contribution to the war program. It women dress less—that is, more cheaply—they can save material and money—and my system will do it without losing them any of their beauty."

Friday, July 21, 2023

Russian Constructivism, ballet and dazzle camouflage

Ballets Russes performers
During the years 1909 through 1929, there flourished a popular European ballet company, known as the Ballets Russes or the Russian Ballet. Beginning in Paris, it performed throughout Europe, and toured in North and South America. Despite its name, the company did not perform in Russia, where the Russian Revolution was ongoing. It was wildly popular and much talked about because of the highly unusual manner in which it made use of choreography, costumes, music, as well as strangely stylized poses in dance.

Coincident to some extent with the Ballets Russes was the rise of Russian Constructivism, a branch of Modernist abstract art, of which the leading practioners were El Lizzitsky, Alexandr Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, and others, both men and women.

They saw themselves not as “artists” but as something more akin to architect-designers, or what might be called “constructors.” It was not their intention to imitate or “make images of” existing phenomena, but to invent or “construct” new configurations, that tended to resemble abstract diagrams. When one compares iconic examples of Russian Constructivism—such as El Lizzitsky’s famous self-portrait with a compass, or his photograph of a hand with a compass (shown here)—with the all but abstract poses of performers in the Ballets Russes, their resemblance is undeniable.


El Lizzitsky, self-portrait photomontage

 

At the time, others saw a connection between the stylized movements of dancers in the Ballets Russes and the colorful, geometric designs that were applied to merchant ships as camouflage during World War I (called “dazzle camouflage”). In a 1918 news story about ship camouflage, it was said that some of the camouflaged ships in the war zone were “made up like [the] Russian ballet.” Another journalist described dazzle painting as “a Russian toy shop gone mad.”

One of the funniest portrayals of the Russian Ballet was a cartoon (shown here) by British artist W.K. Haselden that appeared in the Daily Mirror on November 24, 1924. Titled “Twentieth century ballet for everyday use,” it illustrates how peculiar daily life might be if everyone moved about in the manner of Ballets Russes performers. It is poking fun at the famous performers of course, but it is clear that the cartoonist admires them. The caption at the bottom reads: “The return of the delightful Russian Ballet suggests a new form of amusement for country-based parties. The advantage would be that the costumes would be [at hand and ready to use].”

There is available online a two-hour film documentary on the Ballets Russes. Of late, I have been building a series of digital montage artworks that commemorate the Ballets Russes, as in the example below. But I also talk about Russian Constructivism (and El Lizzitsky) in my own video on the Bauhaus and problem-solving. 

Ballet Russes digital montage © Roy R. Behrens 2023

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

Sunday, October 24, 2021

latest terpsichorean fads in WWI wartime dancing

“CAMOUFLAGE WALTZ” AND “AIRPLANE SPIN” LATEST TERPSICHOREAN STEPS in The Des Moines Register (Des Moines IA), June 11, 1918—

Chicago, June 10—The “trench trot,” the “camouflage waltz” and the “cantonment canter” have displaced the gavotte, the minuet and the old fashioned waltz, it was declared today at the convention of the International Dancing Masters’ Association. Other new dances displayed were the “war stamp" and the “airplane spin.” Plans were announced for a dancing masters’ union which will soon embark for France to instruct American soldiers regarding the newest steps.

• Nature, Art, and Camouflage (35 min. video talk) at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLX5YQF-H3k>
• Art, Women’s Rights, and Camouflage (29 min. video talk) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSWNYCNRcM>
• Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage (26 min. video talk) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3asynn24nD4>
• Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage (28 min. video talk) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS2ZwYyxy1Y>

Sunday, February 14, 2021

Gertrude Hoffman's perturbing lack of camouflage

Gertrude Hoffman as Salomé

LACK OF CAMOUFLAGE BY DANCER SHOCKS: Gertrude Hoffman Asks Church People If They Expect Portrayal of Greek Nymph in Overcoat and Galoshes in Oregon Daily Journal (Portland OR), November 8, 1917—

Chicago, Nov. 8—“Now really, good people, do you expect me to appear in an overcoat and galoshes when I am representing a Greek nymph?”

Thus did the delectable Gertrude Hoffman, pioneer of the cuticule school of dancing, reply today to allegations of the Women’s Church Federation that she is not sufficiently camouflaged during her appearances at a local theatre.

To the charge that she appears “nude below the thighs,” Gertrude replies that hundreds of our best people are appearing daily similarly sans culottes at the Florida and California beaches.

The limitations of Gertrude’s wardrobe are the subject of anxious conferences today between Chief of Police Schuettler and his censor of amusements.

Cover / Gertrude Hoffmann biography

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

Gertrude Hoffman