Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1881

Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar.

Events[link]

January–March[link]

• January 16–January 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans.
• January 24 – William Edward Forster, the chief secretary for Ireland, introduces his Coercion Bill, which temporarily suspended habeas corpus so that those people suspected of committing an offence could be detained without trial; it goes through a long debate before it is accepted February 2.
• January 25 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
• February 2 – The Parkfield Earthquake occurs.
• February 5 – Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated.
• February 13 – The first issue of the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is published by Hubertine Auclert.
• February 19 – Kansas becomes the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
• March 4 – Inauguration of James A. Garfield as President of the United States.
• March 12 – Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player.
• March 13 – Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. He is succeeded by his son, Alexander III.
• March 23 – First Boer War comes to an end.

April–June[link]

• April 11 – Spelman College is established.
• April 14 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
• April 15 – Temuco, Chile is founded.
• April 15 – Anti-Semitic pogroms in Southern Russia start.
• April 21 – The University of Connecticut is founded as the Storrs Agricultural School.
• April 25 – Caulfield Grammar School is founded in Melbourne, Australia.
• April 28 – Billy the Kid escapes from his 2 jailers at the Lincoln County Jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, killing James Bell and Robert Ollinger before stealing a horse and riding out of town.
• May 12 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
• May 13 – The Pacific island of Rotuma cedes to Great Britain, becoming a dependency of the Colony of Fiji.
• May 21 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
• May 21 – The United States Tennis Association is established by a small group of tennis club members.
• June 12 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.

July–September[link]

• July 1 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organization, comes into effect.
• July 2 – James Garfield, President of the United States, is shot by Charles Julius Guiteau. The wound becomes infected; killing Garfield on September 19.
• July 4 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
• July 14 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.
• July 20 – Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.
• July 23 – The Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.
• August 3 – The Pretoria Convention peace treaty is signed, officially ending the war between the Boers and Britain.
• August 27 – The fifth hurricane of the Atlantic season hits Florida and the Carolinas, killing about 700.
• September 5 – The Thumb Fire in the U.S. state of Michigan destroys over a million acres (4,000 km²) and kills 282 people.
• September 12 – Francis Howell High School (Howell Institute) in St. Charles, Missouri, and Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas open on the same day, putting them in a tie for the title of the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River.
• September 19 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies eleven weeks after being shot. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes the 21st President of the United States.
• September 20 – U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in.
• September 26 – Godalming in England becomes the first town to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated).^[1]

October–December[link]

• October 5–December 31 – International Cotton Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia
• October 10 – Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre opens in London, the world's first public building to be fully lit by electricity, using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulbs.^[2][3][4] The stage is first lit electrically on December 28.^[5]
• October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA.
• October 29 – Judge (U.S. magazine) is first published.
• November 11 – The Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech is completed and unveiled to the public.
• November 19 – A meteorite strikes earth near the village of Großliebenthal, a few kilometers southwest of Odessa, Ukraine.
• December 8 – Ringtheaterbrand: At least 380 die in a fire at the Vienna Ringtheater.
• December 28 – Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone and loses the use of his left arm.

Date unknown[link]

• Kinshasa is founded by Henry Morton Stanley as a trading outpost called Léopoldville.
• New York City's oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart New York (91st Street), is founded.
• Edward Rudolf founds the 'Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays' (now The Children's Society).
• The Pali Text Society is founded.
• University College Dublin is established in Ireland.
• The United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) is founded, and the first U.S. Tennis Championships are played.
• The League of the Three Emperors is resurrected.
• Some Vatican archives are opened to scholars for the first time.
• Abilene, Texas is founded.
• The Newcastle United F.C. is founded as the Stanley F.C., with a further name change to Newcastle East End F.C. a few months later.
• The Leyton Orient F.C. is founded.
• Minto, North Dakota is founded.
• Rafaela, Argentina is formed.
• Culford School, a public school in Suffolk, United Kingdom, is founded.

Births[link]

January–March[link]

• January 1 – Vajiravudh, King of Thailand (d. 1925)
• January 9
  • Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (d. 1938)
  • Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, and novelist (d. 1956)
• January 15 – John Rodgers, American naval officer and naval aviation pioneer (d. 1926)
• January 17 – Antoni Lomnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941)
• January 21 – Arch McCarthy, American baseball player (d. unknown)
• January 31 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
• February 12 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)
• February 17 – Beth Streeter Aldrich, American writer (d. 1954)
• February 28 – Otto Dowling, United States Navy Captain, and the 25th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1946)
• March 4
  • Maude Fealy, American stage and film actor (d. 1971)
  • Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American writer (d. 1965)
  • Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist (d. 1948)
• March 9 – Ernest Bevin, British labour leader, politician, and statesman (d. 1951)
• March 10 – Thomas Quinlan (impresario) (d. 1951)
• March 17 – Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
• March 23
  • Roger Martin du Gard, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
  • Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
• March 25
  • Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)
  • Mary Webb, English writer (d. 1927)
• March 26
  • Guccio Gucci founder of Gucci

April–June[link]

• April 14 – Husain Salaahuddin, Famous Mahl writer (d. 1948)
• May 13 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian writer (d.1922)
• May 14 – G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (d. 1950)
• May 19 – Official birthday of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of Turkey (d. 1938)
• May 20 – Władysław Sikorski, Polish general and politician (d. 1943)
• May 30 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (d. 1968)
• June 17 – Tommy Burns, Canadian-born boxer (d. 1955)
• June 26 – Ya'akov Cohen, Israeli poet (d. 1960)

July–September[link]

• July 2 – Royal H. Weller, American politician (d. 1929)
• July 4 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (d. 1968)
• July 22 – Kenneth Whiting, United States Navy officer and submarine and naval aviation pioneer (d. 1943)
• July 27 – Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1945)
• July 30 – Smedley Butler, United States Marine Corps general (d. 1940)
• August 3 – Nathan Post, 7th and 10th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1938)
• August 6 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1955)
• August 7 – François Darlan, French admiral (d. 1942)
• August 8 – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal (b. 1954)
• August 12 – Cecil B. DeMille, American film director and producer (d. 1959)
• August 19 – Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (d. 1955)
• August 20 – Edgar Guest, English poet (d. 1959)
• September 5 – Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (d. 1938)
• September 8 – Harry Hillman, American athlete (d. 1945)
• September 11 – Asta Nielsen, Danish silent film star (d. 1972)
• September 12 – Daniel Jones, British phonetician (d. 1967)
• September 15 – Ettore Bugatti, Italian Car Designer, Founder of Bugatti Automobiles (d. 1947)
• September 16 – Clive Bell, English art critic (d. 1964)
• September 17
  • Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, English soldier (d. 1955)
  • Aubrey Faulkner, South African cricketer (d. 1930)
• September 26 – Hiram Wesley Evans, Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard (d. 1966)

October–December[link]

• October 1 – William Boeing, American engineer and airplane manufacturer (d. 1956)
• October 4 – Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (d. 1948)
• October 11 – Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist (d. 1973)
• October 15
  • William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1944)
  • P. G. Wodehouse, English-born writer (d. 1975)
• October 22 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
• October 25 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter (d. 1973)
• October 26 – Margaret Wycherly, English stage actress (d. 1956)
• October 28 – Vin Coutie, Australian footballer
• November 4 – Gaby Deslys, French dancer & actress (d. 1920)
• November 5 – George A. Malcolm, American jurist & educator (d. 1961)
• November 8 – Robert Esnault-Pelterie, French aircraft designer and pioneer rocket theorist (d. 1957)
• November 14 – Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film studio executive (d. 1969)
• November 15 – Franklin Pierce Adams, American Poet, columnist (d. 1960)
• November 24 – Al Christie, Canadian-born director and producer (d. 1951)
• November 25
  • Jacob Fichman, Romanian-born Israeli poet and essayist (d. 1958)
  • Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)
• November 28 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (d. 1942)
• December 5 – René Cresté, French actor and director (d. 1922)
• December 3 – Henry Fillmore, American composer (d. 1956)
• December 12 – Doris Keane, American stage actress (d. 1945)
• December 24 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

Deaths[link]

January–June[link]

• January 3 – Anna McNeill Whistler, James Whistler's mother and subject of his painting (b. 1804)
• January 21 – Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1802)
• February 5 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (b. 1795)
• February 9 – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (b. 1821)
• February 14 – Fernando Wood, New York City Mayor (b. 1812)
• March 13 – Czar Alexander II of Russia (assassinated) (b. 1818)
• March 28 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (b. 1839)
• April 19 – Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
• May 24 – Samuel Palmer, English artist (b. 1805)
• May 25 – Giuseppe Maria Giulietti, Italian explorer (b. 1847)
• June 6 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (b. 1820)

July–December[link]

• July 14 – Billy the Kid, American gunslinger (b. 1859)
• July 17 – Jim Bridger, American explorer and trapper (b. 1804)
• September 7 – Sidney Lanier, American writer (b. 1842)
• September 8 – Prince Frederik of the Netherlands, Dutch noble and general (b. 1797)
• September 19 – James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1831)
• September 22 – Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b. 1831)
• October 3 – Orson Pratt, American religious leader (b. 1811)
• October 31 – George DeLong, American naval officer and explorer (starvation) (b. 1844)

References[link]

Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlova, ca. 1905.
Born	Анна Павловна (Матвеевна) Павлова (1881-02-12)February 12, 1881 Ligovo, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	January 23, 1931(1931-01-23) (aged 49) The Hague, Netherlands

Anna Pavlova (Russian: А́нна Па́вловна; February 12 [O.S. January 31] 1881 – January 23, 1931) was a Russian ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the finest classical ballet dancers in history and was most noted as a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognised for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.

Early life[link]

Photographic postcard of Anna Pavlova as the Princess Aspicia in the Petipa/Pugni The Pharaoh's Daughter, Saint Petersburg, c. 1910

Аnna Pavlova costumed for the Pandéros in the Petipa/Glazunov Raymonda, Saint Petersburg, 1910

Her mother was a laundress named Lyubov Feodorovna. The identity of her father has been open to debate. She later claimed her father had died when she was two years old. Some sources, including The Saint Petersburg Gazette, have claimed that her illegitimate father was the Jewish–Russian banker Lazar Polyakov.^[1] Her mother's second husband, Matvey Pavlov, is believed to have adopted her at the age of three, by which she acquired his last name.

Pavlova's passion for the art of ballet was ignited when her mother took her to a performance of Marius Petipa's original production of The Sleeping Beauty at the Imperial Maryinsky Theater. The lavish spectacle made an impression on the young Pavlova, and at the age of nine she was taken by her mother to audition for the renowned Imperial Ballet School. Because of her age, and what was considered to be a "sickly" appearance, she was not chosen, but in 1891 she was finally accepted, at the age of 10. She appeared for the first time on stage in Marius Petipa's Un conte de fées (A Fairy Tale), which the ballet master staged for the students of the school.

The young Pavlova's years of training were difficult, as classical ballet did not come easily to her. Her severely arched feet, thin ankles, and long limbs clashed with the small and compact body in favor for the ballerina at the time. Her fellow students taunted her with such nicknames as The broom and La petite sauvage (The little savage). Undeterred, Pavlova trained to improve her technique. She took extra lessons from the noted teachers of the day — Christian Johansson, Pavel Gerdt, Nikolai Legat and more especially from Enrico Cecchetti, considered the greatest ballet virtuoso of the time and founder of the Cecchetti method, a very influential ballet technique used up to this day. In 1898 she entered the classe de perfection of Ekaterina Vazem, former Prima ballerina of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatres.

During her final year at the Imperial Ballet School, she performed many roles with the principal company. She graduated in 1899 at age 18, being allowed to enter the Imperial Ballet a rank ahead of corps de ballet as a coryphée. She made her official début at the Mariinsky Theatre in Pavel Gerdt's Les Dryades prétendues (The False Dryads). Her performance drew praise from the critics, particularly the great critic and historian Nikolai Bezobrazov.

Career[link]

Pavlova rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a favorite of the old maestro Petipa. It was from Petipa himself that Pavlova learned the title role in Paquita, Princess Aspicia in The Pharaoh's Daughter, Queen Nisia in Le Roi Candaule, and Giselle. She was named danseuse in 1902, première danseuse in 1905, and finally prima ballerina in 1906 after a resounding performance in Giselle. Petipa revised many grand pas for her, as well as many supplemental variations. She was much celebrated by the fanatical balletomanes of Tsarist Saint Petersburg, her legions of fans calling themselves the Pavlovatzi.

When the prima ballerina assoluta of the Imperial Theaters Mathilde Kschessinska was pregnant in 1901, she coached Pavlova in the role of Nikya in La Bayadère. Kschessinska, not wanting to be upstaged, was certain Pavlova would fail in the role, as she was considered technically inferior because of her small ankles and lithe legs. Instead audiences became enchanted with Pavlova and her frail, ethereal look, which fitted the role perfectly, particularly in the scene The Kingdom of the Shades.

Anna Pavlova in the Fokine/Saint-Saëns The Dying Swan, Saint Petersburg, 1905

Her feet were extremely rigid, so she strengthened her pointe shoe by adding a piece of hard wood on the soles for support and curving the box of the shoe. At the time, many considered this "cheating", for a ballerina of the era was taught that she, not her shoes, must hold her weight en pointe. In Pavlova's case this was extremely difficult, as the shape of her feet required her to balance her weight on her little toes. Her solution became, over time, the precursor of the modern pointe shoe, as pointe work became less painful and easier for curved feet. According to Margot Fonteyn's biography, Pavlova did not like the way her invention looked in photographs, so she would remove it or have the photographs altered so that it appeared she was using a normal pointe shoe.^[2]

Pavlova is perhaps most renowned for creating the role of The Dying Swan, a solo choreographed for her by Michel Fokine. The ballet, created in 1905, is danced to Le cygne from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.

In the first years of the Ballets Russes Pavlova worked briefly for Sergei Diaghilev. Originally she was to dance the lead in Mikhail Fokine's The Firebird, but refused the part, as she could not come to terms with Igor Stravinsky's avant-garde score, and the role was given to Tamara Karsavina. All her life Pavlova preferred the melodious "musique dansante" of the old maestros such as Cesare Pugni and Ludwig Minkus, and cared little for anything else which strayed from the salon-style ballet music of the 19th century.

By the mid-20th century she founded her own company and performed throughout the world, with a repertory consisting primarily of abridgements of Petipa's works, and specially choreographed pieces for herself. Members of her company included Kathleen Crofton. The ballet writer Cyril Johnson described that "her bourrées were like a string of pearls".

England[link]

After leaving Russia, Pavlova moved to London, England, settling, in 1912, at the Ivy House on North End Road, Golders Green, north of Hampstead Heath, where she lived for the rest of her life. The house had an ornamental lake where she fed her pet swans, and where now stands a statue of her by the Scots sculptor George Henry Paulin. The house was featured in the film "Anna Pavlova". It is now the London Jewish Cultural Centre but a blue plaque marks it as a site of significant historical interest being Pavlova's home.^[3][4] While in London Pavlova was influential in the development of British ballet, most notably inspiring the career of Alicia Markova. The Gate pub, located on the border of Arkley and Totteridge (London Borough of Barnet), has a story, framed on its walls, describing a visit by Pavlova and her dance company.

Pavlova was introduced to audiences in the United States by Max Rabinoff during his time as managing director of the Boston Grand Opera Company from 1914 to 1917 and was featured there with her Russian Ballet Company during that period.^[5]

Personal life[link]

Victor Dandré, her manager and companion, may have been her husband (she deliberately clouded this issue).

Death[link]

Anna Pavlova arriving in The Hague in 1927

While touring in The Hague, Netherlands, Pavlova was told that she had pneumonia and required an operation. She was also told that she would never be able to dance again if she went ahead with it. She refused to have the surgery, saying "If I can't dance then I'd rather be dead." She died of pleurisy, three weeks short of her 50th birthday. She was holding her costume from The Dying Swan when she spoke her last words, "Play the last measure very softly." Her death came in the Hotel Des Indes in The Hague, which displays a wall plaque and has a cigar lounge named the Anna Pavlova Library in her memory.

In accordance with old ballet tradition, on the day she was to have next performed, the show went on as scheduled, with a single spotlight circling an empty stage where she would have been. Memorial services were held in the Russian Orthodox Church in London. Anna Pavlova was cremated, and her ashes placed in a columbarium at Golders Green Crematorium, where her urn was subsequently adorned with her ballet shoes (which since then have been stolen).

Pavlova's ashes have been a source of much controversy, following attempts by Valentina Zhilenkova and Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, to have them flown to Moscow for interment in the Novodevichy Cemetery. These attempts were based on claims that it was Pavlova's dying wish that her ashes be returned to Russia following the fall of Communism. These claims were later found to be false, as there is no evidence to suggest that this was her wish at all. The only documentary evidence that suggests that such a move would be possible is in the will of Pavlova's husband, who stipulated that if Russian authorities agreed to such a move and treated her remains with proper reverence, then the crematorium caretakers should agree to it. Despite this clause, the will does not contain a formal request or plans for a posthumous journey to Russia.

The most recent attempt to move Pavlova's remains to Russia came in 2001. Golders Green Crematorium had made arrangements for them to be flown to Russia for interment on 14 March 2001, in a ceremony to be attended by various Russian dignitaries. This plan was later abandoned after Russian authorities withdrew permission for the move. It was later revealed that neither Pavlova's family nor the Russian Government had sanctioned the move and that they had agreed the remains should stay in London.^[6][7]

Legacy[link]

Commemorative coin, Central Bank of Russia

Pavlova inspired the choreographer Frederick Ashton when as a boy of 13 he saw her dance in in the Municipal Theater in Lima, Peru.

The Pavlova dessert is believed to have been created in honour of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years.

The Jarabe Tapatío, known in English as the 'Mexican Hat Dance', gained popularity outside of Mexico when Pavlova created a staged version in pointe shoes, for which she was showered with hats by her adoring Mexican audiences. Afterward, in 1924, the Jarabe Tapatío was proclaimed Mexico’s national dance.

She once said that the country that would produce the best ballerina in history would be the United States because of all the different cultures that came together there.^{[citation needed]}

Anna Pavlova was able to complete 37 turns while on top of a moving elephant while on a tour in China.

In 1980, Igor Carl Faberge licensed a collection of 8 inch Full Lead Crystal Wine Glasses to commemorate the centenary of Anna's birth. The glasses were crafted in Japan under the supervision of The Franklin Mint. A frosted image of Anna Pavlova appears in the stem of each glass. Originally each set contained 12 glasses.

Pavlova's life was depicted in the 1983 film Anna Pavlova.

When the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, England, opened in 1911, a gilded statue of Pavlova had been installed above the cupola of the theatre. This was taken down for its safety during World War II and was lost. In 2006, a replica of the original statue was restored in its place.^[8]

A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 of the Dutch airlines "KLM - Royal Dutch Airlines", built at 1995-8-31, with the registration "PH-KCH" carries her name.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Christmas pavlova

• 

  Stained glass window entitled "El Jarabe Tapatio"

• 

  The Butterfly (Costume Design by Leon Bakst for Anna Pavlova), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• 

  London, Victoria Palace Theatre, rooftop statue of Anna Pavlova

See also[link]

Biography portal

• List of Russian ballet dancers

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Anna Pavlova in Australia – 1926, 1929 Tours - programs and ephemera held by the National Library of Australia
• Pictures of Anna Pavlova - digitised and held by the National Library of Australia
• Creative Quotations from Anna Pavlova
• Andros on Ballet
• Heroine Worship: Anna Pavlova, The Swan
• Anna Pavlova on Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Anna Pavlova at the Internet Movie Database
• Anna Pavlova at Find a Grave

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anna Pavlova

Étienne Ghys (born December 29, 1954) is a French mathematician. His research focuses mainly on geometry and dynamical systems, though his mathematical interests are broad. He also expresses much interest in the historical development of mathematical ideas, especially the contribution of Henri Poincaré.

Étienne Ghys, 2007.

He co-authored the computer graphics mathematical movie Dimensions: A walk through mathematics!

Alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, he is currently a CNRS "directeur de recherche" at the École normale supérieure in Lyon. He is also editor-in-chief of the Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

External links[link]

• Homepage at the UMPA
• « Notice sur les travaux scientifiques d'Étienne Ghys », an overview of his mathematical interests and results, written for his entry at the French Academy of Sciences.
• Homepage of the movie Dimensions

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

George Enescu

George Enescu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈd͡ʒe̯ord͡ʒe eˈnesku]; known in France as Georges Enesco; 19 August 1881, Liveni – 4 May 1955, Paris) was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.

Biography[link]

Young George Enescu

Enescu was born in the village of Liveni (later renamed "George Enescu" in his honor), Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical composition at the age of five.^[1] Shortly thereafter, his father presented him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella. At the age of seven, he entered the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Robert Fuchs, and Sigismund Bachrich. He graduated before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu played works by Brahms, Sarasate and Mendelssohn. In 1895 he went to Paris to continue his studies. He studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with André Gedalge, and composition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.

Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–2), the opera Œdipe (1936), and the suites for orchestra.^{[citation needed]} He also wrote five symphonies (two of them unfinished), a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music (three sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and piano, a piano trio, two string quartets and two piano quartets, a wind decet (French, "dixtuor"), an octet for strings, a piano quintet, and a chamber symphony for twelve solo instruments). A young Ravi Shankar recalled in the 1960s how Enescu, who had developed a deep interest in Oriental music, rehearsed with Shankar's brother Uday Shankar and his musicians. Around the same time, Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to the Colonial Exhibition in Paris, where he introduced him to the Gamelan Orchestra from Indonesia.^[2]

George Enescu Museum (Cantacuzino Palace), Bucharest

On 8 January 1923 he made his American debut as a conductor in a concert given by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and he subsequently made frequent returns to the United States. It was in America, in the 1920s, that Enescu was first persuaded to make recordings as a violinist. He also appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras, and in 1936 he was one of the candidates considered to replace Arturo Toscanini as permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic.^[3] In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin (who had been his pupil for several years starting in 1927) in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. He also conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938. In 1939 he married Maria Rosetti (known as the Princess Cantacuzino through her first husband Mihail Cantacuzino), a good friend of the future Queen Marie of Romania. While staying in Bucharest, Enescu lived in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei (now the George Enescu Museum, dedicated to his work).

He lived in Paris and in Romania, but after World War II and the Soviet occupation of Romania, he remained in Paris.

He was also a noted violin teacher. Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Ida Haendel and Joan Field were among his pupils. He promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of Constantin Silvestri, Mihail Jora, Ionel Perlea and Marţian Negrea.

He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.^{[4][not in citation given]}

On his death in 1955, George Enescu was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Today, Bucharest houses a museum in his memory; likewise, the Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest and the George Enescu Festival—founded by his friend, musical advocate, and sometime collaborator, the conductor George Georgescu^[5]—are named and held in his honor. Recently, Bacau International Airport was named George Enescu International Airport.

Eugène Ysaÿe's Solo Violin Sonata No. 3 "Ballade" was dedicated to Enescu.

Works[link]

Filarmonica "George Enescu"- Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest

Queen Elisabeth of Romania with George Enescu and Dimitrie Dinicu
at Peleș Castle.

Selected works[link]

For a complete list, see List of compositions by George Enescu.

Operas[link]

• Œdipe, tragédie lyrique in four acts, libretto by Edmond Fleg, Op. 23 (1910–31)

Symphonies[link]

• Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 13 (1905)
• Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 17 (1912–14)
• Symphony No. 3 in C major, with chorus, Op. 21 (1916–18)

Other orchestral works[link]

• Poème Roumain, symphonic suite for orchestra, Op. 1 (1897)
• Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major, Op. 11 (1901)
• Romanian Rhapsody No. 2 in D major, Op. 11 (1902)
• Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, Op. 9 (1903)
• Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C major, Op. 20 (1915)
• Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major Suite Villageoise, Op. 27 (1937–38)

Chamber works[link]

String Quartets[link]

• String Quartet No. 1 in E♭ major, Op. 22, No. 1 (1920)
• String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 22, No. 2 (1950–52)

Sonatas[link]

• Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 2 (1897)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in F minor Op. 6 (1899)
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor dans le caractère populaire roumain, Op. 25 (1926)
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 26, No. 1 (1898)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in C major, Op. 26, No. 2 (1935)

Other chamber works[link]

• Octet for Strings in C major, Op. 7 (1900)
• Dixtuor in D major, for wind instruments, Op. 14 (1906)
• Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 16 (1909)
• Impressions d'Enfance in D major, for violin and piano, Op. 28 (1940)
• Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 29 (1940)
• Piano Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30 (1943–44)
• Chamber Symphony, for 12 instruments, Op. 33 (1954)
• Concertstück, for viola and piano (1906)
• Légende, for trumpet and piano (1906)
• Cantabile et Presto, for flute and piano (1904)

Piano music[link]

• Piano Suite No. 1 in G minor, Dans le style ancien Op. 3 (1897)
• Piano Suite No. 2 in D major, Op. 10 (1901/1903)
• Piano Suite No. 3, Pieces impromptues Op. 18 (1913–16)
• Piano Sonata No. 1 in F♯ minor, op 24, No. 1 (1924)
• Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major, op 24, No. 3 (1933–35)

Songs[link]

Three songs setting Lemaitre and Prudhomme Four songs setting Fernand Gregh In German: Various settings of Carmen Silva (Queen Elisabeth of Romania) In Romanian - 3 songs

• Trois Mélodies, Op. 4 (1898)
• Sept Chansons de Clement Marot, for tenor and piano, Op. 15 (1907–08)
• Trois Mélodies, Op. 19 (1916)

Media[link]

	Cantabile and Presto Performed by Albert Tipton (flute) and Mary Norris (piano) Cantabile and Presto Performed by Alex Murray (flute) and Martha Goldstein (piano)
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

See also[link]

• Category:Compositions by George Enescu
• George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra
• List of 20th century classical composers

References[link]

• Axente, Colette, and Ileana Ratiu. 1998. George Enescu: Biografie documentara, tineretea si afirmarea: 1901-1920. Bucharest: Editura muzicala a U.C.M.R.
• Bentoiu, Pascal. 1984. Capodopere enesciene. Bucharest: Editura muzicala a U.C.M.R.
• Brediceanu, M. et al. 1997. Celebrating George Enescu: A Symposium. Washington, D.C.:^{[citation needed]}.
• Gheorghiu, V. 1944. Un Muzician Genial: George Enescu^{[citation needed]}.
• Cophignon, Alain. 2006. Georges Enesco. Bibliothèque des grands compositeurs. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-62321-4
• Cosma, Viorel. 2000. George Enescu: A Tragic Life in Pictures. Bucharest: The Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House.
• Malcolm, Noel. 1990. George Enescu: His Life and Music, with a preface by Sir Yehudi Menuhin. London: Toccata Press. ISBN 0-907689-32-9 (cloth); ISBN 0-907689-33-7 (pbk)
• Malcolm, Noel. 2001. "Enescu, George." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Roth, Henry. 1997. Violin Virtuosos (from Paganini to the 21st Century).^{[citation needed]} ISBN 18879395150
• Slonimsky, Nicolas (ed.). 2001. "Georges Enesco." Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Centennial Edition. New York: Schirmer Books.
• Voicana, Mircea, Clemansa Firca, Alfred Hoffman, Elena Zottoviceanu, in collaboration with Myriam Marbe, Stefan Niculescu, and Adrian Ratiu. 1971. George Enescu: Monografie. 2 vols. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România.
• Voicana, Mircea (ed.) 1976. Enesciana, I.^{[citation needed]}. (in Fr., Ger., and Eng.)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Enescu

• Legendary Violinists
• International Enescu Society
• Georges Enesco's Profile at The Remington Site: his Continental Bach Recordings and Remington Recordings plus a survey of Sonatas & Partitas in the 1950s
• International Festival and Competition "George Enescu"
• Free scores by Enescu at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by George Enescu in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• A page on the closely linked lives of Enescu and Chailley
• Another site, with a helpful timeline
• Pascal Bentoiu: George Enescu, the composer
• Reissue of the complete Bach clavier concertos conducted by Enesco on 4 CDs
• Review on Musicweb-International by Evan Dickerson of available recordings featuring Enescu's compositions (updated May 2005)
• Review on Musicweb-International by Evan Dickerson of Enescu's recordings as a performer (violinist, conductor & pianist)(updated July 2005)
• Romanian Rhapsody No.1
• Georges Enescu Octet in C, Op.7 sound-bites and short bio

La Argentina

Antonia Mercé y Luque (September 4, 1890 – July 18, 1936), stage name La Argentina, was a dancer known for her creation of the neoclassical style of Spanish dance as a theatrical art.^[1] She was one of the major influences on Japanese butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.^[2]

It is given to few artists to incarnate in their art, at a given epoch, the distinct characteristics of their race and its conception of the beautiful, and this, in a manner so in complete and significant that their names get identified with a peculiar way of living and the story of their life becomes a page of history. It is to one such artist representative of her art, of her country, of her age that this short study is consecrated. The recent unexpected renaissance of Spanish dancing, an art whose creative power seemed to have been exhausted, is due primarily to the singular genius of one dancer, La Argentina. Alone she has epitomized and regenerated a form long cheapened and falsified by the music-hall gypsies turned out wholesale in Seville. And her indescribable success has loosened a new onslaught of Spanish dancing, the oldest and noblest of European exotics."^[3]

Early life[link]

She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A talented young dancer, her career was greatly influenced by her parents Manuel Mercé (an Andalusian), and Josefina Luque (a Castilian), themselves professional Spanish dancers. It was due to them that La Argentina's entire life was mainly focused on dance, where her parents greatly wanted her to excel. She studied ballet with her parents in her youth. She trained mainly with her father, who taught her to dance at the age of four. When she was nine years old, she debuted at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain. At the age of 11, she was a star dancer at the Madrid Opera.

Shortly after the death of her father, La Argentina retired from ballet. After this life-transforming event, at the age of 14, La Argentina started studying native Spanish dances with her mother.

Career[link]

For several years to come, her style of dancing was not highly admired in her society; therefore she could not perform in theatres or in concerts (in which she was used to dancing). She danced wherever she could, which meant performing in café cantantés and music halls.

Prior to World War I, La Argentina was extremely admired in Paris,^{[citation needed]} where she accepted invitations to dance at the Moulin Rouge, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and other important locations. Years later, she took interest in a gypsy-style dance and made it her own.

In her career she made six transcontinental tours in North America, sometimes accompanied by flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya.

Awards[link]

She received several awards, including the French Légion d'honneur and the Spanish Orden de Isabel la Católica.

Death[link]

She died on July 18, 1936, in Bayonne, France.

Contribution to formal dance[link]

Her contributions to formal dance are expressed in her style, her choice of music, her use of castanets, and her structuring of performances.

Style[link]

« For the past year I have had a passion for Argentina. The rigour of her classical formation, her knowledge and her taste bring dignity and nobleness to Spanish folklore, and fills me with respect. I feel like I am entering the Escurial when I am with her. » (Edwige Feuillère )^[4]

« While there had always been a great flowering of folkloric dances in Spain, the history of formal dance itself began only in 1920 with Argentina and Escudero. Diaghilev admired them a lot. » (Serge Lifar)

« From what it was, a colourful facet of popular culure, Spanish formalized dance turns, thanks to her genius and infinite patience, into a choreographic style destined to universal acceptance. »(Jean Dorcy)

La Argentina created her own style. Spain has 49 provinces with very different traditions, where the levels of artistic interpretation go from the crudest popular taste to the most austere sobriety. Certain dances were shapeless, deformed, and forgotten as society changed. La Argentina revived the folklore, catalogued it, sought traditional steps wherever she could fnd them in village squares and in humble dance schools ; she used diplomacy and even subterfuge to be shown a particular step or dance by the elders, such as occurred near Salamanca, where she was able to reconstitute the genuine charrada. She felt strongly that what was presented under that name on stage was not authentic. In denying its popular ancestral roots, Spanish dance in the theatre had become insipid. Italian and French influences had deprived it of its originality. The spirit of genuine Spanish dance had deserted it. La Argentina rekindled that spirit. ^{[5] [6]}

Parallel with this search for authenticity, she systematically made the dances she found conform to her own aesthetic. She married the purity of classical style with the ardour and character of popular art. No element, musical or plastic, escaped her labour of re-creation. She devoted more than eight hours a day to it, submitting each pattem of steps to her sense of rhythm and music. She refined and pruned, keeping only what was essential, she stylized and transformed the lead of regional dances into the finest gold. Thanks to her, Spanish formal dance went into a new phase, and rose to a hitherto unattained level of sublimation.

What do we mean by stylizing or adapting for the stage ? Stylised dance must retain the nature and flavour of folklore while respecting the demands of the stage. What are these ?

- To create space - To accentuate movement - The different parts must fit into the whole - The body becomes moving architecture.

The Spanish dancer has the advantage on this last point. Classical dance extends the form and inflects only during moments of transition, in linear continuity. Essentially it offers surfaces, the Spanish body volumes. Classical dance offers surfaces because it is a product of the stage. On stage we are best seen from the front and in three quarters profile; seen from the side the body loses its radiance. and from the back it loses it entirely. Traditionally the Spanish dancer is seen from all angles. He constantly offers volumes to the eye. A thousand fluid body positions give vigour, ardour and celerity. Classical dance paints, Spanish dance sculpts. Classical form elongates itself, shimmers, rises on tip-toe ; it glides, it loses substance, becomes idealised. Spanish form is earthy, it strikes, presses, accentuates downward, stays close to the ground. Made of broken lines, of sinuous and constantly inflected form. It is ready to leap not in the air as in classical dance. but like a wild animal. In adapting itself to the stage, Spanish dance must retain its specific shapes. If it conforms only to stage demands, it would undoubtedly turn into classical dance. It has no right to do so, because of its roots: it is born in the street, in the bars. It represents a region. It reflects the life of the people. its games and bullfighting, the enticing fan of a young girl, African eroticism, oriental gypsy mystery. The court dancer did not possess the triple benefit of their historical, ethnographical and psychological background. That is why he could care only about linear beauty. (^[7])

Music[link]

La Argentina was the first to use music for Spanish dance of the great contemporary composers such as Isaac Albéniz, de Falla, Granados and Turina. The musical monuments of these four composers demanded broad choral movements that folklore did not possess. Taking as their base the guitar's melodic micro-universe, and influenced by foreign (especially Russian and French) composition styles, they considerably widened their musical palette. She also elicited scores from the young composers of her country such as Halffter, Espla, Duran.

Great artists accompanied her on the piano. In 1926 Joaquin Nin, pianist and composer arranged many popular songs and Amparo Navaro, née Iturbi, sister of José Iturbi. Carmencita Perez played in 1926 and 1929–30; Miguel Berdion in late 1929 and 1930, and in 1931 in New York. Luis Galve was her accompanist from 27 March 1931 until the end.

La Argentina used any music that suited her temperament. The interaction between music and dance, the parallels she found between melodic line and body profile, intermingled. Her inner vigour seemed to produce both music and dance, so much that any gesture became music for the eye.

Castanets[link]

Of using castanets she

As a little girl ( I was three or four perhaps), I used to hear the insistent, percussive sound of the big castanets when my parents gave lessons. The unmusical noise irritated me so much that I would go and hide in the furthest part of the apartment so as not to hear its reverberation. There I would practice my tiny hands on a pair of castanets my father had given me, and more or less unconsciously - one hardly uses reason at that age - I sought to draw sounds from my instrument that did not hurt my ears. Such were my beginnings and I can only say that my liking for castanets came from the disgust that other’s castanets inspired in me".^[8]

Even as a simple accompanist to regional dances, Argentina became an astonishing soloist and the castanets a genuine concert instrument, even going so far as to modifying their design to obtain more satisfying tones. "The public not only liked Argentina's dancing, and her slim, gently curving arms, it also enjoyed her castanet performance. It was a virtuoso display. "The perfection of her interpretation and the faultless manner of expressing the smallest musical nuance drew comparison with the great Toscanini. « Her performance contained such subtleties » André Levinson said, « such a variety of tones that they were almost like a voice, and such an intensity of expression impatience, challenge and triumph - that they not only amounted to a voice but to a language! « As the famous Spanish-Cuban composer, Joaquin Nin, who styled himself as teacher of perfect Bach and whom I used to see for this reason once said, I always refused to be shackled, even if the chain was the customary pearl necklace offered young women after marriage. But I adored the thread of pearls provided by Argentina's castanets, when she would come as my lessons with him were fnishing to rehearse the wonderful dances of her first recitals at number 27, rue Henri-Heine. » Nothing henceforward would be as before. She was imitated. Some tried to equal her. All the great artists of Spain adopted her musical notation for castanets. She gave Spanish dance her own special imprint, which nowadays it would be inconceivable to do without; she showed the way to future castanet performers, and facilitated the instrument's admittance to the orchestra.^[9][10]

Recital format[link]

Argentina was also the first to inaugurate the recital format, performing her own choreography for concerts in which she was alone on stage, accompanied simply by a pianist, occasionally by a guitarist, especially for the flamenco dances. Her guitarist throughout was Salvador Ballesteros, a family friend. She did not succeed all at once. Like everything else in her career (which began very modestly in Madrid, to end up at the Paris Opera), it happened progressively. She first performed dances in variety programmes, then in pieces with orchestral music; later on in dances where less importance was accorded the orchestra. Her first shows in 1925 during a European tour and in the South of France were shared with Joaquin Nin the composer and soloist, the singer Alicita Felici, with Mme Ginesty-Brisson at the piano, or with the opera singer Dolores de Silvera. The same programme took place at the Salle Gaveau, in Paris, on January 10, 1926. It was in Berlin, on October 15, 1926, that she gave her first solo recital with Carmencita Perez as accompanist. At the end of October of the same year, she gave the same performance in Stockholm, then at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. From then on, she retained the same format:

1927: Salle Gaveau, Théâtre Femina 1928: Salle Pleyel 1929: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées 1933: On December 3, first recital at the Paris Opera 1934: Gala at the Opera, and recital at the Opera Comique 1936: Springtime saw her in Cannes where the kings of Sweden and Denmark applauded her; in May she retumed to Paris and, except for her own ballets, always performed alone on stage with ever-increasing triumph around the world. Argentina was also the first artist of such fame to give recitals at inexpensive prices that were within everybody's range, at the old Trocadero which held more than fve thousand seats. The success of these popular shows was sheer madness. She was obliged to renew the experience several times a season as it had become a tradition expected by all Parisians, who jammed the box-offces, the thousands of seats available beind sold out in a single day.

Main creations[link]

1. Concert dances

1912 El Garrotin, based on a popular air. La Corrida, music by Valverde (taken from choreographies created in 1910 for the opérette l’Amour en Espagne Tango Andalou, music by Ballesteros.

1916 Danse des Yeux verts, music specially composed by Granados.

Between 1916 and 1921 :Habanera, music by Pablo de Sarasate. Cordoba, music by Albeniz. Danza V, music by Granados.

1921 Sevilla, music by Albeniz. Serenata, music by Malats. Sérénade Andalouse, music by C. Ruecker.

1925 Danse du Feu, music by Manuel de Falla. Andalouse Sentimentale, music by Turina. Boléro Classique, music by Iradier. Bohémiene, based on a popular air. Seguidilla (without music).

1926 Mexicaine, based on a popular air. Ciel de Cuba, based on a popular air.

1927 Valencia, music by C. Ruecker. Chaconne, music by Albeniz.

1928 Serenata Andaluza, music by Manuel de Falla. Jota Valenciana, music by Granados. Danse Gitane, music by Infante. Lagerterana, music by Guerrero.

1929 la vie brève, music by de Falla. Carinosa, popular music from the Philippines. Jota Aragonesa, music by de Falla.

1930 Goyescas, music by Granados. Danse Ibérienne, music specially composed by Joaquin Nin. Danse de la Meunière, music by de Falla.

1932 Almeria, music by Albeniz. La Romeria de los Cornudos, music by Pittaluga (The Shawl Dance - a dance from Granada). Puerta de Tierra, music by Albeniz. Danse du Meunier, music by de Falla. Légende, music by Albeniz. Charrada, popular music from Salamanca. Malaguena, music by Albeniz. Castilla, music by Albeniz, « Matid 1 800 ». Cuba, music by Albeniz. Alegrias, music by Ballesteros.

1933 Zapataedo, music by Granados. Tientos, music by Infante.

1934 Sacra-Monte, music by Turina. Esquisse Gitane, music by Infante. La Fregona, music by Vives. Suite Argentine, based on a popular air (Condicion-Bailecito - Zamba). Suite Andalouse, based on popular airs (Sevillanas-Peteneras - Bulerias).

1936 1935 Fandango, music by Turina. Polo Gitano, music by Breton. La Firmeza, based on Argentinian popular music, becoming the last dance in the Suite Argentine.

2. Ballets

1925 L’Amour Sorcier, music by Manuel de Falla.

1927 El Fandango de Candi, music by Duran. Argentina successively expressed feminine shrewdness, thwarted love, tenderness, wearing a pink costume with cubist flounces cut into scallops.

1927 Au coeur de Seville, cuadro flamenco based on a popular air.

1928 Sonatine, music by Ernesto Halffter. This ballet, a mixture of Old France and Castilla, made Spanish courtly dancing come to life again. With delightful touch, Argentina introduces a shepherdess on stage, gliding and pirouetting imperceptibly.

1928 Le Contrebandier, music by Oscar Espla, where the future Empress Eugénie meets Prosper Mérimée and where the countess of Teba saves a smuggler who is pursued by two opérette gendarmes.

1928 Juerga, music by Julien Bautista. Scenes of popular life in Madrid around 1 885 : returning from a popular festival, young people from good families in search of pleasure mingle with common folk, and give themselves to unrestrained jollity : turmoil, dancing, and colourful to-ing and fro-ing.

1929 Triana, music by Albeniz. Lovers' tiffs during the Corpus Christi in Sevilla.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Suzanne F. Cordelier: La vie brève de la Argentina. Paris 1936
• Monique Paravicini (ed.): Argentina. Gilberte Cournand, Paris 1956
• Argentina. Bienal de Arte Flamenco (V el Baile). Sevilla 1988
• Ministerio de Cultura (ed.): Homenaje en su Centenario 1890-1990 Antonia Mercé 'La Argentina'. Madrid 1990
• Suzanne de Soye: Toi qui dansais, (you danced and danced) Argentina. Paris 1993
• Carlos Manso: La Argentina, fue Antonia Mercé. Buenos Aires 1993
• Ria Schneider (ed.): Argentina. Antonia Mercé. Kastagnettenstücke, entstanden 1912-1936. IGkK, Köln 1993
• Brygida M. Ochaim, Claudia Balk: Varieté-Tänzerinnen um 1900. Vom Sinnenrausch zur Tanzmoderne, Ausstellung des Deutschen Theatermuseums München 23.10.1998–17.1.1999., Stroemfeld, Frankfurt/M. 1998, ISBN 3-87877-745-0

External links[link]

• La Argentina's biography
• Short Biography
• Tarot & Dance: The Dancing Queens, Antonia Merce, La Argentina, Queen of Coins(c) Cheryl Lynne Bradley 2003] at TarotCanada.tripod.com La Argentina
• Legado de Antonia Mercé La Argentina en la Fundación Juan March(Spanish).
• Archive of Antonia Mercé La Argentina, Fundación Juan March-Madrid(English).