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Proms, parties and gender politics: amazing photos from American dancefloors – and what they tell us about a changing nation

From George Balanchine to the Rockettes, the US magazine regularly ran lavish photo spreads dedicated to dance, with the myriad ways people moved their bodies holding up a mirror to the shifting times Life magazine launched in 1936. Its aim: to show the US the world, in pictures. At a time when television was still an experimental medium, a golden age of photojournalism brought the outside world into people’s homes. Life ran weekly until 1972, spanning a transformative time in US culture. Photographers were dispatched across the globe, covering wars, political manoeuvres, social trends, hemlines and Hollywood. And in December 1936, the magazine dedicated its cover feature to dance, with dancers from the new School of American Ballet gracing the front page. As such a vividly visual medium, dance would become a regular feature in Life’s pages across the years. When I was asked to write the

Image from linked report: Proms, parties and gender politics: amazing photos from American dancefloors – and what they tell us about a changing nation
Image from the linked report: Proms, parties and gender politics: amazing photos from American dancefloors – and what they tell us about a changing nation.Credit: The Guardian Thumbnail shown with attribution and outbound source link; VINI does not claim ownership or republish the original article body. Image source External image shown with attribution and an outbound source link; VINI does not claim ownership or republish the original article body.
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Why it mattersCulture

From George Balanchine to the Rockettes, the US magazine regularly ran lavish photo spreads dedicated to dance, with the myriad ways people moved their bodies holding up a mirror to the shifting times Life magazine launched in 1936. Its aim: to show the US the world, in pictures. At a time when television was still an experimental medium, a golden age of photojournalism brought the outside world into people’s homes. Life ran weekly until 1972, spanning a transformative time in US culture. Photographers were dispatched across the globe, covering wars, political manoeuvres, social trends, hemlines and Hollywood. And in December 1936, the magazine dedicated its cover feature to dance, with dancers from the new School of American Ballet gracing the front page. As such a vividly visual medium, dance would become a regular feature in Life’s pages across the years. When I was asked to write the

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According to The Guardian’s source item, Proms, parties and gender politics: amazing photos from American dancefloors – and what they tell us about a changing nation, From George Balanchine to the Rockettes, the US magazine regularly ran lavish photo spreads dedicated to dance, with the myriad ways people moved their bodies holding up a mirror to the shifting times Life magazine launched in 1936. Its aim: to show the US the world, in pictures. At a time when television was still an experimental medium, a golden age of photojournalism brought the outside world into people’s homes. Life ran weekly until 1972, spanning a transformative time in US culture. Photographers were dispatched across the globe, covering wars, political manoeuvres, social trends, hemlines and Hollywood. And in December 1936, the magazine dedicated its cover feature to dance, with dancers from the new School of American Ballet gracing the front page. As such a vividly visual medium, dance would become a regular feature in Life’s pages across the years. When I was asked to write the

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Primary source: Proms, parties and gender politics: amazing photos from American dancefloors – and what they tell us about a changing nation via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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