Dance, little lady - Tilly Losch in The Band Wagon, 1931

 

Costumed for "The Beggar Waltz" number. (Nine images.)

With Fred Astaire. (Six images.)

Costumed for "The Flag" number. (Five - ? - images.)
(While all the images in this post were taken in connection with The Band Wagon, I'm confused about two sets of photographs: one, with Losch in this costume and
the next, where she wears another. According to the programme, there is only one possible number these can relate to, yet there are two very different costumes.)

Costumed for the "dancing in the Dark" number. (Eight images.)

Most if not all of the above photographs are the work of Florence Vandamm/Vandamm Studio.

*

Tilly Losch (née Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine Losch, later Countess of Carnarvon; 15 November 1903, Vienna – 24 December 1975, New York City), Austrian dancer, choreographer, actress, and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and Great Britain. Born into a Jewish family, she studied ballet from childhood with the Vienna Opera, making her debut in 1913. She became a member of the corps de ballet in 1918, a coryphée three years later, and a soloist in 1924. Away from the ballet, she took modern dance classes and performed roles in Viennese theaters, at the Salzburg Festival, and in Max Reinhardt's 1924 Berlin production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which she also choreographed. She resigned from the Vienna Opera in 1927 and made her London debut the following year in Cochran's production of the Noël Coward's musical revue This Year of Grace and, over the course of the next few years, worked in London and New York as both a dancer and choreographer. 

She married the Anglo-American millionaire and arts patron Edward James in 1930; he founded a ballet company for her - Les Ballets 1933 - which performed in London and Paris. He divorced her four years later, claiming her infidelity; her lovers during this period were reputed to include Tom Mitford, Prince Serge Obolensky, and Lotte Lenya. She appeared in four films between 1936 and 1946 but, dissatisfied with the supporting roles, she continued working as a dancer, choreographer, and stage actress. Prominent choreographers - the likes of Balanchine, Massine, Ashton, Tudor - also created roles for her.

In 1939 she married Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon. Around this time a severe clinical depression caused Losch to spend time in a sanatorium in Switzerland and abandon dance. But she began painting, first in watercolors and later in oils, eventually showing her work to critical acclaim. Her second marriage ended in 1947, and she thereafter commuted between London and New York City. She died of cancer at the age of seventy-two, and her ashes were interred in the grounds of Leopoldskron Castle, near Salzburg.

*

Losch, Fred and Adele Astaire, Frank Morgan, and Helen Broderick.

The Band Wagon is a musical revue with book by George S. Kaufman and Howard Dietz, lyrics by Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz. It was originally produced by Max Gordon, with staging and lighting by Hassard Short, choreography by Albertina Rasch, scenic design by Albert R. Johnson, and costumes by Constance Ripley and Kiviette. The cast was led by Fred and Adele Astaire, Helen Broderick, Frank Morgan, and Tilly Losch. Opening at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 3 June 1931, the show closed on 16 January 1932, after a run of 260 performances. Considered by many to be the greatest of the revues of the Twenties and early Thirties, it marked the final appearance of the legendary brother and sister team, the Astaires. Fred Astaire starred in a 1953 film of the same name, costarring Cyd Charisse and Jack Buchanan. While using many of the songs from the earlier stage revue, it is otherwise totally unrelated. A modest box-office success at the time of its release, it is now regarded as one of the finest of M-G-M's celebrated classic musicals.

From the playbill, a photograph with the cast in costume for the "I Love Louisa" number.