Desha Delteil

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Desha Delteil (1892-1965) was an American dancer and artists' model.

She was born in Yugoslavia and studied under Michel Fokine, eventually becoming first dancer in his company. In 1920 she appeared in a solo short movie, "The Bubble," of a young girl dancing with a balloon, and was an uncredited cabaret dancer in the 1924 motion picture "Isn't Life Wonderful." A few years later, her "bubble dance" in the 1929 Hollywood musical "Glorifying the American Girl" made her well known. In the 1930s she and Jean Myrio, another classically trained dancer, performed at number of nightclubs in Paris and London, and their dance interpretation of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at the Kit-Cat Club was recorded in a Pathé motion picture review.

In 1916, Desha was hired to pose for sculptor Harriet Whitney Frishmuth and modeled for several of Frishmth's female bronzes, one of which Frishmuth entitled Desha. She became Frishmuth's favorite model, posing not only for a number of her best pieces but also for her studio art classes. She is known to have posed for The Vine and Roses of Yesterday, and is presumed to have posed for The Hunt based on similarities of form and figure. [1] Delteil modeled for other artists as well, being highly valued for her ability to hold difficult poses for extended periods.

[edit] External links

• George Eastman House collection of photographs of Desha Delteil