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Ekaterina Galanta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ekaterina Galanta
Galanta, 1923
Born
Ekaterina Nikolayevna de Galanta[1]

c. 1895
St. Petersburg (Petrograd)
NationalityRussian
Other namesEkaterina de Galanta, Katerina Galanta, Ketty Galanta, Ketty de Galantha, Kitty Galanta
Occupationdancer
Known forBallets Russes

Ekaterina Nikolayevna de Galanta (Russian: Екатерина Николаевна фон Галанта; born c. 1895), often billed as Ketty Galanta, was a Russian ballerina and member of the Ballets Russes.

Early life

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Galanta was born and raised in Saint Petersburg.[2][3] She was the daughter of Nikolai von Galanta/de Galanta, from a Hungarian noble family Esterházy de Galántha. In 1917, she was described as being 20[4] or 21 years old.[5] Nikolai Legat was her first ballet teacher.[6]

Career

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Still from the American film The Fall of the Romanoffs (1917) with Edward Connelly and Ketty Galanta.
Galanta as Anna Vyrubova with Edward Connelly as Rasputin in The Fall of the Romanoffs, 1917

Galanta toured in the United States with the Ballets Russes in 1916, with Vaslav Nijinsky, Adolph Bolm, Flore Revalles, Lydia Lopokova, Olga Spessivtseva, and Valentina Kachouba, among others in the company of forty dancers.[7][8] When the ballet company left the United States, she stayed behind to pursue a solo stage career.[6] She danced at the Metropolitan Opera House in Petruschka (1916).[9] While she was principal dancer in The Wanderer in New York in 1917,[10] she was a mentor to American dancer Martha Lorber.[11] In 1918 she was featured as a dancer in the musical Chu Chin Chow.[2]

Herbert Brenon cast Galanta in the silent film The Fall of the Romanoffs (1917, now lost).[12][13] One critic found her performance distracting, saying "Ketty Galanta is vivid in the role of Anna; [her eyes] roll in a fashion so marvelous that one fears they may pop out of her head; consequently, the audience gasps in wonderment when it should merely feel the thrill of emotion."[14] She appeared in two more films, both directed by Brenon, Empty Pockets (1918), a murder mystery with Malcolm Williams,[15][16] and The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1918), based on the Jerome K. Jerome play, and starring Johnston Forbes-Robertson.[17]

Ketty de Galantha on the cover of the Argentine magazine El Gráfico in 1921.

By 1922, Galanta moved to South America,[11] where she taught dance at her own studio[18] in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[19] One of her students in Buenos Aires was María Fux.[20] She was one of the founders of the Friends of Dance Association (AADA) there, along with fellow Ballets Russes dancer Tamara Grigorieva.[21]

References

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  1. ^ New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820–1957
  2. ^ a b "Ketty Galanta in "Empty Pockets."". World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955). 1918-03-02. p. 5. Retrieved 2019-04-05 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "Galanta Danced for the Ex-Czar". Evening Public Ledger. September 22, 1917. p. 13. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "A Remarkable Personality". Philadelphia Inquirer. September 16, 1917. p. 38. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  5. ^ "Russian Dancer Going on the Dramatic Stage". The Washington Post. March 11, 1917. p. 8. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Ketty Galanta". Vernal Express. July 4, 1919. p. 6. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Diaghileff Ballet Russe Arrives". Musical America. 24: 33. September 23, 1916.
  8. ^ "Members of the Famous Ballet Thrilled the New England Folk". The Wichita Beacon. December 9, 1916. p. 9. Retrieved April 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Fitzgerald, Gerald (2016-06-11). Annals of the Metropolitan Opera: The Complete Chronicle of Performances and Artists. Springer. pp. cclii. ISBN 9781349119769.
  10. ^ "Mlle. Galanta in 'The Wanderer' Tonight". The Courier-News. March 7, 1917. p. 11. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b "Regarded as 'Best Bet' Among American Dancers". The Morning Call. March 14, 1922. p. 10. Retrieved April 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Fall of the Romanoffs". Motography. 18: 671. September 29, 1917.
  13. ^ Mallory, Mary (November 18, 2013). "Hollywood Heights — The Fall of the Romanoffs Documents Russian Revolution". Los Angeles Daily Mirror. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  14. ^ Clarke, Frederic S. (Fall 1970). "Rasputin on Film". Cinefantastique. 1: 8 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ "'Empty Pockets' Ready for Screen". Motography. 19: 33. January 5, 1918.
  16. ^ Wlaschin, Ken (2009-04-28). Silent Mystery and Detective Movies: A Comprehensive Filmography. McFarland. p. 78. ISBN 9780786443505.
  17. ^ "Russian Star at Lyceum". Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930). 1919-08-03. p. 13. Retrieved 2019-04-05 – via Trove.
  18. ^ Friedler, Sharon E.; Glazer, Susan B. (2014-04-08). Dancing Female. Routledge. ISBN 9781134397976.
  19. ^ Scalisi, Cecilia (2012-12-01). De padre a hija: Cartas de Alberto Ginastera a su hija Georgina (in Spanish). Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina. ISBN 9789500740913.
  20. ^ Asseo de Choch, Ana (January 14, 2012). "La danza está unida a todo lo que somos como personas". Página 12. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  21. ^ Fortuna, Victoria (2018-12-05). Moving Otherwise: Dance, Violence, and Memory in Buenos Aires. Oxford University Press. p. 35. ISBN 9780190627010.
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