The New York Hippodrome theatre brought together many different types of performance on its massive stage. Its opening production in 1905, for instance, included circus acts, a ballet, and a fictionalized Civil War battle (Fig. 1). Many of the acts focused on a key feature in the theatrical environment, a water tank beneath the apron of the stage that could be filled to a fourteen-foot depth. High divers plunged into the tank; in shows with an “ice ballet,” its water was frozen into a skating rink; for a production of HMS Pinafore, a replica ship floated in its water with Brooklyn Navy Yard sailors in the rigging. Yet one tank act repeated and was recalled more than any of the others: a phalanx of women in martial costumes who marched solemnly, row after row, into the water and disappeared.

中文翻译：

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消失的美人鱼：通过纽约竞技场的水上表演展现白人女性的机动性

纽约竞技场剧院在其巨大的舞台上汇集了许多不同类型的表演。例如，它于 1905 年首演，包括马戏表演、芭蕾舞和虚构的内战（图 1）。许多表演都集中在戏剧环境的一个关键特征上，即舞台围裙下方的一个水箱，水箱可以注满 14 英尺深。高位潜水员跳入水箱；在“冰上芭蕾”的表演中，它的水被冻结成溜冰场；用于生产HMS 围裙，一艘复制船漂浮在水面上，布鲁克林海军造船厂的水手们在索具上。然而，有一个坦克动作重复出现，并且比其他任何动作都更容易被记住：一群穿着军装的妇女庄严地行军，一排又一排，进入水中消失了。