Imogene, from the Ballet Queens series (N182) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1889

This small chromolithograph of Imogene, one of William S. Kimball & Company's "Ballet Queens," captures a figure adorned in symbols of spectacle and allure. The most striking is the leopard print of the tunic. Historically, the leopard has been associated with Dionysus, the god of wine, theatre, and ecstasy. This symbol resurfaces through the ages, from maenads in ancient Greek art to Bacchantes in the Renaissance, each evoking a sense of ecstatic release. Here, Imogene's leopard print hints at a similar liberation, albeit within the controlled environment of the ballet stage. The boots, laced high, suggest both constraint and the potential for movement, a visual tension that mirrors the dancer's poised energy. The ballet dancer, like the leopard, becomes a vessel through which humanity expresses its deepest desires and fears, endlessly reinvented, yet forever tethered to its primal origins.