a additions designed by Gabo:

The mica was a heavy, strong plastic, clear and transparent, the headdress was the same. Spessivtseva's hair was shingled and brushed at the sides to a point, high up on the cheeks. I used to have that too. We had to stick it so it didn't move ... Apart from a mica headdress and leggings, we also had a mica skirt, worn over the tutu, which one for the first entrance, the variation. Then one exited after the variation and quickly the skirt came off for the pas de deux.

Underneath the mica additions, the dancers wore white tights and satin shoes instead of the more usual flesh-coloured tights and shoes. Gabo's costume sketches (Nash and Merket (eds.) 1985, pls.104-7) demonstrate how closely the sculptural qualities of the mica and the integration of the dancers into their setting occupied him (the costume and headdress worn by Serge Lifar, as well as sketches relating to his headdress and the cat's costume, were offered for sale at Sotheby's 9 May 1984, lots 51, 53 and 54 from the Serge Lifar Collection).

The model and set for La Chatte cannot be viewed in isolation from Gabo's sculptural projects of early 1920s, many of which exploited the translucent and transparent qualities of plastics then becoming available. It also owes a debt to Russian stage design, although the pioneering nature of Gabo's set represents considerable advances in the field of stage design. Steven A. Nash writes:

The roots of Gabo's composition are found in earlier Russian set design, and even the use of plastic can be traced to Exter's costumes for the 1924 film Aelita, but no predecessor had carried the partnership of geometry, transparency, and light to such dazzling heights. Gabo was able to create an environment of shifting, fluid states, with material fusing into space. Integrated with movement and drama, the whole ensemble would have been truly a visual and sensual adventure. The importance accorded Gabo's stage set as an environmental statement is evidenced by its early publication in Arthur Korn's Glas im Bau und als Gebrauchsgegenstand of 1929 and Moholy-Nagy's Von Material zu Architektur of the same year (Nash and Mekert (eds.) 1985, p.31).

The set for La Chatte, emphatically geometric, balanced rectilineal elements with curvilinear forms. The sweep of the curved ramp in the foreground led to the circular disc at centre stage. A preparatory ska additions designed by Gabo:

The mica was a heavy, strong plastic, clear and transparent, the headdress was the same. Spessivtseva's hair was shingled and brushed at the sides to a point, high up on the cheeks. I used to have that too. We had to stick it so it didn't move ... Apart from a mica headdress and leggings, we also had a mica skirt, worn over the tutu, which one for the first entrance, the variation. Then one exited after the variation and quickly the skirt came off for the pas de deux.

Underneath the mica additions, the dancers wore white tights and satin shoes instead of the more usual flesh-coloured tights and shoes. Gabo's costume sketches (Nash and Merket (eds.) 1985, pls.104-7) demonstrate how closely the sculptural qualities of the mica and the integration of the dancers into their setting occupied him (the costume and headdress worn by Serge Lifar, as well as sketches relating to his headdress and the cat's costume, were offered for sale at Sotheby's 9 May 1984, lots 51, 53 and 54 from the Serge Lifar Collection).

The model and set for La Chatte cannot be viewed in isolation from Gabo's sculptural projects of early 1920s, many of which exploited the translucent and transparent qualities of plastics then becoming available. It also owes a debt to Russian stage design, although the pioneering nature of Gabo's set represents considerable advances in the field of stage design. Steven A. Nash writes:

The roots of Gabo's composition are found in earlier Russian set design, and even the use of plastic can be traced to Exter's costumes for the 1924 film Aelita, but no predecessor had carried the partnership of geometry, transparency, and light to such dazzling heights. Gabo was able to create an environment of shifting, fluid states, with material fusing into space. Integrated with movement and drama, the whole ensemble would have been truly a visual and sensual adventure. The importance accorded Gabo's stage set as an environmental statement is evidenced by its early publication in Arthur Korn's Glas im Bau und als Gebrauchsgegenstand of 1929 and Moholy-Nagy's Von Material zu Architektur of the same year (Nash and Mekert (eds.) 1985, p.31).

The set for La Chatte, emphatically geometric, balanced rectilineal elements with curvilinear forms. The sweep of the curved ramp in the foreground led to the circular disc at centre stage. A preparatory sketch dated 1926 (ib