Dance
The Innovators: Great Gay Moments in 20th-Century Dance
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The Innovators: Great Gay Moments in 20th-Century Dance
The Innovators: Great Gay Moments in 20th-Century Dance
Sergey Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes
The legendary ballet impresario founded the Ballets Russes, a collaborative effort of the most talented artists, composers, and dancers of the early 20th century. His homosexuality was fairly well known, as was his relationship with the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky and other various lovers, including Boris Kochno, Leonide Massine, and Serge Lifar. The Ballets Russes became a locus in itself, attracting large numbers of homosexual men wherever it performed. With his intimate coterie of superbly talented gay artists, Diaghilev invented the gay mafia as they cruised together and swapped boyfriends. His concept of the male dancer as an erotic focal point helped create and commercialize the gay male gaze.
This black bombshell was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was the first African-American woman to star in a major motion picture and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the civil rights movement in the United States, for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor the Croix de Guerre.
Baker came from an extremely hardscrabble background; she was descended from former slaves, and she was sent out to work at age 8. She dropped out of school at 12 and danced on street corners for handouts. She was recruited for the vaudeville circuit, and her easy combination of humor, grace, and raw sexual energy skyrocketed her to international fame. She became a symbol of the modern age, embodying the lines and grace of an ebony art deco statue.
Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, and Mildred Smallwood were all African-American women she met while touring on the black performing circuit early in her career, and were all rumored to be her lovers. The larger diamonds in her crown were lovers Colette, the French author of Gigi, and Frida Kahlo.
Lincoln Kirstein: Inventing Ballet in New York
Imposingly tall and exotically beautiful, Lincoln Kirstein was a protean cultural impresario. Rejected by The Harvard Advocate, he convinced his wealthy father to fund his own magazine, Horn & Hound. It was an important magazine in the world of art and literature, especially on the East Coast. He moved away from the project in 1934 when he began funding George Balanchine's development a ballet company that ultimately became the New York City Ballet. He served as the company's general director from 1946 to 1989. Kirstein commissioned and helped to fund the physical home of the New York City Ballet: the New York State Theater building at Lincoln Center, designed in 1964 by gay architect Philip Johnson.
An almost absurdly gay moment in Kirstein's career was the 1938 ballet Filling Station by Lew Christensen, with music by gay composer Virgil Thomson and book by Kirstein. Gay artist Paul Cadmus designed the sets and the see-through costume for the station attendant. The Museum of Modern Art says of the ballet, "Filling Station, which concerns a gas-station attendant's run-ins with various patrons, received rave reviews in the United States and abroad. The ballet's subject matter allowed Cadmus to further explore themes seen in his fine-art practice: the eroticized male body and views of everyday American life."
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