Hello my lovely ballet bunnies! Emma here, ready to take you on another fabulous journey through time, on my trusty pink sparkling shire horse, Magic Meg, with my trusty leather rucksack filled with ballet delights, to uncover another piece of ballet history. This month we're whizzing off to 2nd February, 1720!
Let me tell you, there's a special excitement in the air! This month, darling, it's all about opera! I am just delighted to say we're going to see a ballet performance, tucked within the dazzling world of opera. Fancy that, a show within a show!
Now, it’s not all tutus and tiaras in the world of time travel, especially not in 1720. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: the 'tutu' we know and love today, well, it hadn't even been thought up! The dance costumes back then were far more ornate, think brocades, silk, feathers, even hats - all the flair!* Just imagine how delightful it must have looked to dance in all that magnificent finery!
I have to admit, I was absolutely giddy riding Magic Meg down a cobbled street. I can just imagine a gentleman in a powdered wig tipping his hat and giving me a rather charming grin, as we go by, me looking like a delightful cloud of pink fluff. Just me, my fabulous pink tutu and my pink sparky shire horse. I swear, Meg shimmers almost as much as I do in my sparkly outfit!
As we reached a grand building, with elaborate architecture that makes even me want to twirl, I realised, darling, we're going to see a show at the Royal Opera House! Can you even believe it?! It’s so grand, I can practically hear the whispers of a hundred years of dance.
So let me paint you a picture of a truly grand scene: The inside was a burst of colour and light. Ladies in elegant gowns, gentlemen with powdered wigs, a truly magical mix! The theatre is abuzz with anticipation! This was just a little pre-show entertainment: it seems a ballet divertissement was presented as part of a four act opera, 'Midas' by Jean-Joseph Mouret. It's fascinating, right? It shows the incredible integration of dance and music at that time. I do hope it involved dancing gods, my favourite kind of ballet inspiration!
And here's the real juicy piece of history! Back in the day, ballets were not a fully fledged separate art form as we know it today. Ballet performances, like ours today, were typically found within grand, sprawling operatic productions, where dance played an important role in amplifying the drama and visual spectacle. And oh, what a spectacle it was!
We see ballet take the stage for an entire 24 hours of the day at the Palais Royal - can you believe it, a whole day! Dance had no break , that's dedication! This just goes to show that the passion for ballet back then, in those early days, burned bright!
And I must tell you, darling, the beauty of this performance blew my mind! I'm just going to pop the details of the programme I saw right here for you, it was simply spectacular, it had it all: a dramatic fight sequence, with swords swirling through the air and dancing deities who danced and posed with such regal precision! This ballet divertissement was quite unlike anything I'd seen before - it was a taste of true early French Baroque dance. We have to be grateful for these brilliant dance performances in their own way; they helped lay the foundation for the breathtaking, expressive ballets that exist today!
I left the Royal Opera House that night, completely inspired! It really shows that the spirit of ballet is timeless, isn't it? The desire for movement, expression, storytelling - it's something that touches us all, through centuries and across cultures. I'll never be tired of learning about it!
Right then, I best be off! Time travel calls for my trusty pink-sparkle-hued horse and our trusty rucksack ready for our next dance with history. Until next time, remember: dance with joy, spread a little sparkle, and always choose pink!
Emma out.
