03/29/2015
One beautiful and talented woman photographed by another. I think you'll like this one, Linda Bennett!!
Dora Kallmus (Madame D'Ora) (Austrian-Jewish fashion and portrait photographer) 1881 - 1963
Princesse Leila Bederkhan, Danseuse Kourde, ca. 1930
gelatin silver print
28.2 x 18.7 cm. (11.1 x 7.36 in.)
private collection
Leyla Bedirhan (or Leila Bederkhan, the name she preferred to use in Europe, born 1903 in Instanbul, died 1986 Paris) was the first Kurdish woman to be a modern dancer. She performed in Europe and the United States with a modern dance program composed of works inspired by Assyrian and Egyptian dance styles. Intending to highlight the historical roots of her choreography, she put on her performances in authentic locations; and she produced a dance exhibition utilizing the Great Sphynx at Giza in Egypt as a background.
At La Scala (in Milan) on 23 January 1932, she danced the role of Belkis in Ottorino Respighi's ballet "Belkis, Regina di Saba" (Belkis, Queen of Sheba), a premiere with the choreography of Leonide Massine. Her fellow cast member, the ballet dancer David Lichine, was in the role of Salomon.
The ballet "Belkis, Queen of Sheba" was one of the most demanding works staged in the art world of the 1930s. Methods new for that time were implemented, such as the use of wind machines in technical staging, taking the trumpets out of the orchestra, which played backstage, and giving a place to instruments such as the sitar, not used up to that time in a Western classical music orchestra.
In documents related to the premieres at La Scala, found in the Munıcipal Archive in Milan, in the first critical reviews published in the press and later in the analyses of cultural historians, the view was expressed that the "Belkis, Queen of Sheba" ballet was the most important performance in the history of La Scala.
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Princess Leila Bederkhan, daughter of the great Bederkhan, who was Emir of Kurdistan under the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hamid, is causing a sensation on the Continent with her marvellous dancing. She dances solely in the Eastern style and has instituted a new vogue in the artistic circles on the Continent. She has been engaged to make a long tour in America
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Born Dora Philippine Kallmus in Vienna in 1881, she came from a respected family of Jewish lawyers. In 1905 she was the first woman to be admitted to theory courses at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt (Graphic Training Institute). That same year she became a member of the Vienna Photographic Society. She trained at Nicola Perscheid's studio in Berlin, where she became friends with his assistant Arthur Benda.
In 1907 she opened a photography studio with Benda in Vienna called the Benda-D'Ora Studio. The name was based on the pseudonym "Madame d'Ora", which she used professionally throughout the rest of her life. She was popular among the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy, and their gallery was so popular that they opened another studio in Paris in 1924. Three years later she left Vienna for Paris and worked there for many years. In Paris, she became internationally known for her society and fashion photography during the 1930s and 1940s. Her subjects included Josephine Baker, Tamara de Lempicka, Alban Berg, Niddy Impekoven, Maurice Chevalier, Colette, and other dancers, actors, painters, and writers.
When the Germans invaded France she fled to a convent in the countryside. She returned to Paris in late 1946 and reopened the studio.
In 1959 she was involved in a serious traffic accident that left her an invalid. She died in Frohnleiten, Steiermark, Austria, in 1963.
