Undine

Tying in nicely to the previous post, Undine is a mythological subject that has been given treatment by all the arts, but nowhere more beautifully than the ballet sequence performed by Vera Zorina, choreographed by George Balanchine in the film The Goldwyn Follies in 1938.

This was Goldwyn's first Technicolor film and George Gershwin's last film score before his death. The plot was meaningless, but to be a frame for song and dance.

Vera Zorina was the stage name for Eva Brigitta Hartwig, a beautiful ballerina, actress and choreographer. I can imagine from these photographs that all the stagehands must have been in love with her.

She rises from the pool . . .

and dances on the surface, thanks to a sheet of glass . . .

Above, backed up on set by the American Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera

Technicolor!

Her studio shot below is stunning, is it not?