Danze e danzatrici nella stampa italiana: il caso di «Scena illustrata» (1910)

Abstract

In December 1910, a special issue of «Scena illustrata» is released in Florence. The booklet, entirely devoted to dance, is characterized by a significant use of iconographic elements, such as engravings referring to the dances of the past, and photographic images, crucial for portraying contemporary trends within the international dance world. More than in the textual element, the interest of this issue lies in the iconographic apparatus: still coexisting with drawings and engravings, pictures take here a peculiar positon, presenting themselves both as portraits of dancers (often full page) and as collages of two pages with captions, a format bound to a great fortune in the Italian press at least until the 1930s. But what does it mean, in 1910, to dedicate such a publication to dance? What kind of dance can we see beyond the magazine’s elegant and refined look? What representation of the female dancer’s body can we identify? To what extent is it exposed, in what attitude is it placed, in what dress? This article answers to these questions by analysing the 1910 special issue of «Scena illustrata»: this publication is considered in the context of the editorial history of the magazine as well as in that of the relation between dance and press in Italy at the turn of the century.