New Deal Dance Art (4/10): "The Ballet School" and "Ballet Fedre"

Above: "The Ballet School," a painting by Gwyneth King (1908-1985), created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1936. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Weatherspoon Art Museum.

Above: A WPA poster, promoting the WPA production, Ballet Fedre. Ballet Fedre was performed in Chicago from January 27 to February 19, 1938 (Hallie Flanagan, Arena, 1940, p. 386). Perhaps its popularity allowed it to run beyond the date you see on the poster above. One of the authors of the play, Berta Ochsner, wrote another ballet, Fugitive From Rhythm, "in which a young farmer who applied for work on [a] W.P.A. agricultural project was assigned by mistake to a percussion ballet" (Arena, p. 139). Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.