Backstage at the annual Sublian Festival in Batangas City, Philippines, female dancers in their costumes find a moment to sleep—and to escape the pressures of performance.
CHIARA NEGRELLO
Cwm Pennant
Oh shit. Sally Field kinda went off here. “The garment you knit for yourself as a child.” Might have to read her memoir now.
Gold and enamel locket, Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Jaipur, 18th century.
Cleveland Museum of Art (ID: 1960.198)
This locket may have once been an amulet containing prayers and talismans or a container for perfume or other cosmetic items. At the center, a young woman stands between two groupings of large red flowers. The connections between women and nature have ancient precedents in India, often communicating auspicious fertility. Luxury enamels like this were the hallmark of 18th-century Jaipur goldsmiths and jewelry makers.
This locket was given to the museum by the Twentieth Century Club, a women’s community group founded in the early 1900s with satellites across the United States.
Persian miniature of woman with daf in Qajar Iran, 19th century.
The daf (Persian: دف), also called dâyere or riq, is a traditional Iranian frame drum widely used in both popular and classical music across Persian-influenced regions such as Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia, Pakistan, and parts of India and Russia. It is also played among the Kurds, Balkans, Bukharan Jews, and Macedonians.
Recognized as the national instrument of Pakistan, the daf is also featured on Azerbaijani currency—the 1 qəpik coin and 1 manat banknote.
Traditionally made with a wooden frame, metal jingles, and a thin animal-skin head (now often synthetic), the daf produces sound when struck with both hands: the left hand holds and taps the rim, while the right hand strikes the center or snaps its fingers against the surface to create sharp, rhythmic tones.
Carnelian intaglio with profile of a woman, Roman, 3rd century AD
from Christies
