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Things I like: suffragettes, war workers, factory girls, socialites who got stuff done, ladies who ruled countries, and women who changed the world, even if it was just a little bit. Click on photos for sources.

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Unfinished Spaces, premiering tonight (October 12) on PBS, check your local listings.

In 1961, in the heady first days of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro asked three visionary architects to build the Cuban National Arts Schools on what had been the golf course of a country club. Before construction was completed, the revolution became Sovietized, and suddenly the project was denounced as bourgeois and counter-revolutionary. These radical, magnificent buildings become a prism through which we see the turbulent, ever-shifting history of Castro’s Cuba and follow the fates of the three architects, now in their 80s, who may get a second chance to revitalize their utopian project. 

For another look at the Cuban National Art Schools, check out Dancing with Cuba, Alma Guillermoprieto’s memoir of the six months she spent teaching modern dance at Cuba’s National School of Dance.

Four Mexican American women on stage in dance performance for 16th of September (Mexican Independence Day) celebration, circa 1945. Included are Lupe Gonzalez (2nd from right) and Nellie Solis (far right).  Circa 1945

Four Mexican American women on stage in dance performance for 16th of September (Mexican Independence Day) celebration, circa 1945. Included are Lupe Gonzalez (2nd from right) and Nellie Solis (far right). 

Circa 1945

Balinese dancer Devi Dja, 1941 From Time Magazine 1939 Young as nymphs are the temple dancers in Bali. At 12 they are too old for the temple, retire and usually marry. But when Temple-dancer Devi Dja (pronounced Davy Jah) was dancing the Legong in Klunklung,* the late, great Anna Pavlowa visited neighboring Java for a couple of concerts, and round-faced Dancer Devi Dja went to see her dance. Result: Devi Dja decided that 12 was over-young to quit. So she collected a group of other aging temple-dancers, started giving commercial performances for visiting tourists. Two years ago Devi Dja’s dancers toured Java and French Indo-China, with Devi Dja billed as the “Balinese Pavlowa.” Last spring she took her troupe all the way to Europe, planned to go home by way of the U. S. *A seacoast region famous for its arts and crafts. The Legong: a ceremonial dance in which two or three girls enact an incident from Hindu mythology.

Balinese dancer Devi Dja, 1941

From Time Magazine 1939

Young as nymphs are the temple dancers in Bali. At 12 they are too old for the temple, retire and usually marry. But when Temple-dancer Devi Dja (pronounced Davy Jah) was dancing the Legong in Klunklung,* the late, great Anna Pavlowa visited neighboring Java for a couple of concerts, and round-faced Dancer Devi Dja went to see her dance. Result: Devi Dja decided that 12 was over-young to quit. So she collected a group of other aging temple-dancers, started giving commercial performances for visiting tourists. Two years ago Devi Dja’s dancers toured Java and French Indo-China, with Devi Dja billed as the “Balinese Pavlowa.” Last spring she took her troupe all the way to Europe, planned to go home by way of the U. S.

*A seacoast region famous for its arts and crafts. The Legong: a ceremonial dance in which two or three girls enact an incident from Hindu mythology.