Dancing in the Vortex : The Story of Ida Rubinstein

This was no ordinary woman: she was a chameleon; a diva who lived many lives; a woman who overcame the endemic, fashionable anti-semitism of her times to enchant and captivate the highest of societies.

She touched the sun and lit flames all over Europe, only to disappear into complete obscurity.

Here was the aristocrat who drank champagne out of madonna leaves and had two great loves, one woman, one man.

Here was a woman who scandalized society from Paris to St Petersburg, whose charisma attracted people from Marc Chagall to Sarah Bernhardt and Jean Cocteau to the first Lord Moyne; here was a woman who for a quarter of a century dominated centre stage, her own gala firework display, her own festival, a gilded being touched by the Gods.

Virtually untrained as a dancer, Ida Rubinstein's qualities as a performer warranted her a place in the first triumphant Parisian season of the Ballets Russes and her charisma and creative energy attracted collaborators of the quality of Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel, Cocteau, Bakst and Benois.There is no doubt that Ida Rubinstein was a 'superstar' in all its meanings: as extravagant as her friend Sarah Bernhardt (with whom she shared a penchant for collecting wild animals as pets) and as revolutionary in her lifestyle and performances as Isadora Duncan.

In this book Vicki Woolf gives us a long-awaited insight into the life of this remarkable woman and illuminates an especially fascinating chapter of artistic activity in Paris in the early twentieth century.