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Ballet Russes in Australia: Tamara Toumanova (c.1939)
Filmed in slow motion, Tamara Toumanova, wearing a green and black swimsuit, performs a series of leaps and poses on the sand at Bungan Beach.
Toumanova toured to Australia on the Ballets Russes third tour, so this footage was probably shot between 1939 and 1940. Toumanova’s beauty and dark features led British critic Arnold Haskell to call her the ‘black pearl’ of Russian ballet. She can also be seen in black-and-white footage in Ballets Russes Can No 9.
Curator:
Poppy De Souza