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Jeté-Propelled: 1925
June 30, 1925. Washington, D.C. "National American Ballet." A triad of tessellating terpsichores. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.
Gamboling
The old word for this sort of behavior was "gamboling," meaning to leap or skip about playfully.
This word seems to have gone out of popular use, although plenty of people will gambol on occasion.
A bright day?
Given that this was a glass negative, and so probably a slow emulsion, I'm amazed at the framing and detail of the leaping dancers. The bokeh suggests that they were jumping right along the plane of focus and I'm struggling with how they would have gotten the timing spot on to frame them just so. Can't help but wonder how bright it was out there to allow a fast enough shutter speed to freeze them even with the lens wide open. (wish I could jump that high!)
[The emulsion doesn't really care (or know) whether it's on glass or film. Even in 1897 there were fast emulsions. By 1925 photography was almost a century old, and stop-motion shots were nothing out of the ordinary. - Dave]
Tessellating terpsichores, forsooth
It's been a while since I've mentioned it, so I'll say it again: this is one of my favorite blogs in the whole vast blogosphere, and the only thing better than these photos is your titles and captions for them.
I mean, "Jeté-Propelled" ... wow.
Nice alliteration, ya got there!
"A triad of tessellating terpsichores."
"Very good! Can you say 'Titus the tailor told ten tall tales to Titania the titmouse'?"
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