I recently acquired a set of 20+ photographs of girls in dance poses. I assume these were taken to illustrate to other dancers the basic poses. The size of the photos is 2 inches by 3 inches and the quality is not great. There’s no information to show who the dancers were, who the photographer was or at what date they were taken. My guess is they date back to the Edwardian era. More poses from this series are shown below.
I would further speculate that these poses were influenced by Isadora Duncan and her followers as she often performed barefoot and in a short tunic.
This photo is larger and from a different source but you can see the same posing ideas being put into practice.
And here’s another set of dancers barefoot and in tunics.
And a solo dancer striking a pose. Once you start looking you will find many dancers who all seem to be working from the same templates.
