Ida Rubinstein

Ida Lvovna Rubinstein (b. 1885 St. Petersburg, Russia, d. 20 September 1960, Vence, France) was a ballet dancer, patron and iconic Belle Epoque beauty.

Related Topics:
Ballet - Belle Epoque

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Born into a wealthy Jewish family, Rubinstein was orphaned at an early age. She had, by the standard of Russian ballet, little formal training. Under the private tutalage of Mikhail Fokine she debuted in 1909 with a single private performance of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, stripping completely nude in the course of the Dance of the Seven Veils. Serge Diaghilev took her with the Ballets Russes and she danced the title role of Cléopâtre in the Paris season of 1909. This performance was as a powerful spectacle, the costumes were designed by Leon Bakst and the finale inspired Kees van Dongen's Souvenir of the Russian Opera Season 1909.

Related Topics:
Mikhail Fokine - Oscar Wilde's - Serge Diaghilev - Ballets Russes - Leon Bakst - Kees van Dongen's

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In fact, Rubinstein was much celebrated in art, her portrait by Valentin Serov in 1910 marks the most complete realization of his mature style, the Art Deco sculptor Demetre Chiparus produced a Rubinstein figurine and she was painted by Antonio de la Gandara. In 1911 she began a three year affair with the painter Romaine Brooks, Brooks used her as a model, painting a striking portrait and a nude as Venus.

Related Topics:
Valentin Serov - Demetre Chiparus - Antonio de la Gandara - Romaine Brooks - Venus

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Rubinstein danced with the Ballet Russe again in the 1910 season, performing in Scheherazade, a ballet based on the first story of the Thousand and One Nights, choreographered by Michel Fokine and written by him and Léon Bakst. This was admired at the time for its racy sensuality and sumptuous staging, these days, though, it is rarely performed, it is considered too much of a pantomine and the then fashionable Orientalism appears dated. In 1911 she performed in Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien, Gabriele D?Annunzio wrote the part for her and it was scored by Claude Debussy. This was both a triumph for its stylized modernism and a scandal; the arch-bishop of Paris requested Catholics not attend because St. Sebastian was being played by a woman and a Jew.

Related Topics:
Thousand and One Nights - Orientalism - Gabriele D?Annunzio - Claude Debussy

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After she left the Ballet Russe, Rubinstein founded and funded several ballet companies and she worked with a number of important choreographers and composers including Arthur Honegger. She commissioned and performed in Maurice Ravel's Boléro in 1928, she often staged free ballet events and continued to dance until the start of the second World War. Rubinstein is not considered to be among first rank of ballerinas, she began her training too late for that to be a possibility, she did, however, have tremendous stage presence and was able to act. She was an significant patron and she tended to commission works that suited her abilities, works that mixed dance with drama and stagecraft.

Related Topics:
Arthur Honegger - Maurice Ravel's - Boléro

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