LIFE INTERNATIONAL cover 08-23-1965
Choreographer George Balanchine & dancer Suzanne Farrell in costume for the ballet “Don Quixote”
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Google has been working on digitizing LIFE magazine’s incredible image archive, and will be using those images to further populate their Image Search engine.
A quick search for ballet yields incredible results… Performance photos, studio photos, tour photos, backstage photos… Images I’ve never seen before, iconic people and places, a new (to me) perspective…
Dancer Tanaquil LeClercq performing “La Valse” at Gjon Mili’s studio.
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1951
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Dancer Tanaquil LeClercq performing portion of “Bouree Fantasque” at Gjon Mili’s studio.
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1951
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Multiple image of choreographer Martha Graham performing her own work,”Punch and Judy”, in Mili Studio.
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1941
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Check it out, I’m sure you’ll find things you never would have expected, on any topic you can image - and they are supposedly only 1/5th of the way through digitizing! The related images work fantastically well too. (via VSL)
Also, apparently Gjon Mili was also The Winger of the 70’s… 
Gjon Mili photographing New York City Ballet cast members backstage at performance of “Pulcinella” for the Stravinsky Festival at the New York State Theater (no caps).
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1972
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Stravinsky Festival
Gjon Mili (C) photographing George Balanchine & unident. ballerina backstage at NYC Ballet during the Stravinsky Festival at the New York State Theater (no caps).
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1972
Photographer: Gjon Mili
doug jaeger
so awesome! I love LIFE, i heard rumors that they are launching a website under that brand…
Dec 03, 2008 @ 18:42
kristin sloan
that would be amazing!
Dec 03, 2008 @ 18:49
Alannah
awesome!!!! this is sooo cool!
Dec 03, 2008 @ 19:09
david hallberg
Great post.. Thank you.
Dec 04, 2008 @ 09:57
kathy
This is amazing! I’m going to be late for work. I can’t stop looking at these pictures! Dubrovska teaching class in the 70’s…how wonderful.
Dec 04, 2008 @ 13:06
The Curtains of the NY State Theater « Dancing Perfectly Free
[...] December 4, 2008 The digitizing of LIFE’s images, which Kristin wrote about on The Winger, is indeed a valuable addition to Google Image. After searching for ballet and the New York State Theater (now the David H. Koch Theater), I discovered some revealing photos: Sometime in 1967, the sparkly gold and silver curtain was replaced with a diamond-patterned curtain, and the current curtain has a slightly different pattern. After doing a little more research, I learned that the NY State Theater has had four different curtains, and the current one has been in use since 1982. I wonder, will a portion of Mr. Koch’s $100 million gift be used to adorn the theater with a 5th curtain? [...]
Dec 04, 2008 @ 14:17
Milt
This is what I want my dance photography to look like when it grows up.
Dec 04, 2008 @ 15:26
Janet
Amazing photos! Thanks for pointing us to this treasure trove.
Dec 04, 2008 @ 20:35
Philip
The scary thing is, I remember some of these issues of LIFE magazine. My parents were subscribers to both LIFE and LOOK. And the Reader’s Digest, too…
Thanks for a ‘memorable’ post, Kristin!
Dec 05, 2008 @ 17:04