Hello my darlings! Emma here, your resident pink tutu wearing, time travelling, ballet-obsessed blogger, and welcome to Pink-Tutu.com. It's June the 6th, 1754 today, and believe me, my lovelies, you wouldn't believe what I've seen!
As usual, Magic Meg and I, my magnificent pink sparkling Shire with the golden hooves and the whitest mane and tail you ever did see, scampered back to the stables at daybreak. Oh, those cobblestones are just brutal on delicate horse hooves, even for a super-powered shire! We spent a glorious night back in the 1750s, whisking me away from my 21st century home in Derbyshire, where we can normally hear the distant music from the ballet studio, but that's another blog post entirely, and this one is about 18th century wonders.
So, let's get to it. This month I found myself at the Opera-Comique, the original Parisian one, not the more familiar one you know about from the late 19th century! Oh, what a treat for a ballerina such as myself to watch dancing in its original context! There was ballet, yes, but mostly comedic operas. I saw a delightful piece called 'L’Amour Voisin' featuring a ballerina dancing alongside her comic character counterparts.
Can you believe this darling? In the 1750s ballet had moved on quite a bit from its initial purely ceremonial and aristocratic functions! While the dance was still based upon Italian models - after all, what would dance be without Italian inspiration - ballet was fast becoming popular and entertaining! Now it included elements of mime and even pantomime and I couldn't believe my eyes! Such beautiful expressions of the dancer, like little poems that come to life. The dance itself, the ballet proper, was the focus here, the star of the show! Not like some of the newer contemporary work that I've seen, where dance takes a back seat, where the choreography just a backdrop to an uninspiring performance or the story's dramatic climax.
And the dancing! Oh my darlings, they're doing ballet with such wonderful strength and lightness of touch! The techniques of 'en pointe' , as we know it today hadn't really been introduced, yet they used their bodies in such a powerful, athletic and controlled manner, oh, my! Each movement so eloquent and precise. They were, after all, using dance to create emotional journeys, stories with a point, a climax and a resolution - it's quite genius really, and very modern for the times. You could clearly see the influence of what I believe they called 'ballet-master' - or * maîtres de ballet* , - I haven’t finished working out all those fancy French terms for this blog yet, and the one before. Each one putting his personal stamp on this ever-evolving art form.
After a delightful dinner in Paris with Magic Meg's stable boys, we enjoyed some post-theatre festivities with one of the dancers called Jeanne. Jeanne loved my pink tutu - and even thought the pink sequins were 'perfectly chic!' Jeanne showed me around the City of Lights - we even strolled past the Tuileries Garden, just to give you a sense of how wonderful it was!
Anyway, speaking of which... did you know the Tuileries Gardens - that very garden you picture with all of those romantic 18th Century paintings of women in frilled and ruffled gowns and men in knee breeches? It actually only opened as a public garden around 1667! Who knew! You wouldn’t think those sorts of spaces were only a couple of hundred years old. But what would Parisian socialites do, sitting for a picnic in the city!
However, after all that history and excitement, it was time to return to my beloved Derbyshire, and back to my familiar pink tutu life, but not without adding this particular bit of French ballet history to my pink leather rucksack - oh my darlings, this blog isn't all about pink tutus you know, but of course, I had to pack a tiny pink, sequined, tutu in my bag for this date - well a souvenir isn't a souvenir, if you don't make it yours! What wouldn't be complete without a bit of pink glitter and sequins! Especially on the cobbled lanes of 1750s Paris! But as we rode off in the early hours along the Paris back roads - or are they alleys? I have such a problem with all of these historical time periods with their names! - I saw that fashion wasn’t all frills, bows and rococo flourishes like my tutu! Some of it was quite demure and conservative with tight corsets, a sort of restrictive, constricting style, as much for those of a dainty and demure stature - if you can picture that my darlings, or as we would call it nowadays - the petite, in those days they did wear so many layers, and tight layers at that - the fabric and the layers had to be heavy, because the colours of the fabrics themselves weren't as bright. In fact, there was no way of really giving colour to garments as effectively as they can today, - the shades and hues were dull - even when rich fabrics were worn like velvets and satins!
That bright, beautiful blue that shines off some of my more modern tutus, - oh well they're just not the same. I would just look like a pink, glitter and sequined anomaly. Even Magic Meg was a bright pink rarity - oh well you could only use these vibrant colours if you had dye which could give that brightness - something not available to the folks of 1754. Oh darling, even some of my ballet costume sequins couldn't stand the light in 1754. That’s one of the perks of time travel; being able to appreciate fashion trends over time, in their rightful setting.
Speaking of appreciating fashions, can we chat a moment about ballet slippers? It's hard to believe the slippers that we use in our classes now haven’t always existed, that these weren’t always just what a ballerina, or ballet student used - just a fabric shoe - and quite basic at that! Now these shoes really allow the grace and the flexibility that makes our movement possible - those earlier ballet slippers - or were they shoes really? They must have been incredibly painful! No, we have much to be grateful for now that the ballet slipper has progressed as far as it has. But if they look basic to the casual observer, well that's because a good ballet shoe really should look almost like a part of the foot, an extension of the leg, - like we have so expertly incorporated our ballet slippers, the ballet tights, and the pointe shoes into the body and the form - into the beautiful lines that we produce and perform.
Before you say it, you already know I’m back to pink tutus and ballet. After all, this is the Pink-Tutu Blog! So let's make sure that everyone is wearing one, that pink tutus take over the world and ballet. What will next month's ballet adventures have in store for us, my dear lovelies, you'll have to come back next month and see! Oh, don’t forget, I post monthly - be sure to look out for the Pink-Tutu blog update. Let's all get to work!
See you all next month - love,
Emma x
P.S. If you’re feeling inspired and need some ballet outfit inspiration for a glamorous ballet event, you’ll need a pretty pink tutu for sure! Oh but I just know the very outfit to match - don't forget your sparkling pink tights!
