Interesting Snapshots of Ballet Dancers on the Beach From the 1930s

Here's a small collection of joyful snapshots of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo dancers swimming, diving, and dancing at the beach or the pool from the 1930s. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Ballets Russes toured the United States and the world, introducing many to ballet as an art form, while spreading the enduring image of the ballerina as an embodiment of feminine grace and sophistication.

Yurek Lazowsky and Narcisse Matouchevsky on the beach, Monte Carlo, 1932.

Narcisse Matouchevsky and Yurek Lazowsky on the beach, Monte Carlo, 1932.

Irina Baronova on the beach, Monte Carlo, 1932.

Tania Riabouchinska and David Lichine on the beach, Monte Carlo, 1932.

David Lichine, Baronova, and fellow “baby ballerina” Tatiana Riabouchinska at a villa in Florence, summer 1937.

Borislav Runanine clowning with Baronova’s knitting, poolside, Florence, summer 1937.

Lichine and Baronova, on the villa’s lawn, Florence, summer 1937.

Members of the company on the Maloja, the ship that took them on a six-week journey to Australia in 1938-1939.

On board the Maloja, 1938-39.

Unidentified group of dancers at Jacob’s Pillow, a dance compound in Massachusetts where Baronova worked while she was with the New York-based Ballet Theatre in the early 1940s.

(Photos: Irina Baronova and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, via Slate)