Dancers: Gypsy Rhouma-Je

Max Pollak

While in Austria Max Pollak was part of the avant-garde dance scene. He did a series of intaglio portraits of dancers, usually costumed and posed, from one of their noted performances.

The enigmatic Dorothy "Gypsy Rhoumaje" Shaw (American: 07/11/1908 - ?) was a well-known dancer and actress from the Art Deco era. She pursued a career in the performing arts from an early age, working as a young teen in the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles before being discovered by an agent. She soon stablished herself as a sought-after comedic actress and a dancer in both the U.S. and abroad. She was best known for her self-styled dancing, choreographing numbers that borrowed from Hungarian, Burmese, and Latin American styles.

At age 17 she was discovered by a European agent who secured a stint for her in the Picadilly Revels cabaret in London. Not long after, she secured a job as a dancer in Paris, where her star rose as a popular performer in line with Nina Payne and Frances White. From Paris her career took off, and she traveled throughout France, Italy, England, and Eastern Europe, as well as New York and other American metropolises, working as a dancer and actress on both the stage and in silent films. Unfortunately, her whereabouts after 1939 remain unknown.