As an early enthusiast of the small-format Leica camera,
with its fast, sensitive film, Bing was able to go into dark settings like the
Moulin Rouge nightclub and capture dynamic images such as this one. Unlike the
detail achievable in contact prints made from large-plate negatives, enlarging
from small negatives lent her images an atmospheric graininess. In 1931 Bing
made her debut with this series on cancan dancers at the Galerie de la Pléiade,
the most prominent of the new contemporary art galleries in Paris. Bing’s
talent for photographing the spirit and motion of dance did not go unnoticed: one
critic later praised the “twirling magnetism” of the series and the famous
choreographer George Balanchine invited her to photograph his ballet Errante in 1933.