Hello, darlings! Emma here, your resident pink tutu-loving, time-traveling ballet aficionado, reporting live fromâŠwell, letâs just say itâs a fabulously exciting Tuesday somewhere in the world. This week, Iâm taking a little trip back in time to 1966 â a year when the world of ballet, and, indeed, the world of fashion, were taking a whirl in a wonderfully exciting new direction.
My, oh my, have you ever heard of a dance called âthe minuet?â It's just too precious for words, and with all the time-traveling, I've noticed there are certain trends in clothing which repeat across eras. The same as there are trends in dance forms - take the Waltz, or the Tango... There's a very particular sort of skirt shape you tend to see across eras and decades. So, this week, we'll talk about tutus!
Before we talk about tutus though, a little story for you. In this lovely, light, delicate, breezy pink tutu of mine, I took a trip to Derbyshire, England, just a little while ago. Now Derbyshire is just lovely! And you can find just so many things you might find of interest - history, heritage, museums and gardens! I don't often find time for my home town but when I did I made sure to visit Chatsworth House which has a fab exhibition this year all about their famous gardens! Such stunning architecture, and amazing landscapes - but do you know what was the best thing? That huge swathe of beautiful bluebells! Honestly, you'd be forgiven for mistaking them for a purple-tinted cloud! And whatâs more wonderful? They all grew underneath such a stunning canopy of trees - I really do find trees fascinating and feel so calm when I'm standing amongst them. Chatsworth House has wonderful views as well from the gardens. I felt I was just outside the gardens that day but it's wonderful to be at a place with such wonderful history and stunning natural beauty!
Anyway, I have to admit, sometimes even a time-traveling ballerina like me has to slow down, find her center, and, well, remember to breathe! It's just too easy to get swept up in all the excitement. Sometimes even time travelers can be too caught up in fashion trends that they forget to take care of themselves and just breathe. Sometimes even I just need a minute or two just for myself, to ground myself and, oh, well, just appreciate my pink tutu. My little haven. I love tutus so much - as I think you'll be able to tell.
Right then. Letâs get on with this history.
Imagine, if you will, a time before the âjetĂ©â and âpirouette,â before the glorious leaps and spins that now fill the ballets we see on stages worldwide. We're stepping back into a time before those movements. What we'd call âclassic balletâ today has gone through so many different phases to get to the incredible, beautiful performance art we see in ballet performances today, and all this can be shown through how a tutu has evolved and changed!
As I've been journeying around the world, popping between eras and times, there are a lot of different tutus! But my favorites are definitely those we're most familiar with - romantic era, classical tutu, and, well, I just think anything the dancers are wearing these days is marvelous! Ballet dancers wear incredible outfits for performances and you wouldn't see such a spectacle outside of ballet on any stage in the world.
Back to the modern tutu though. Where shall we begin?
It's pretty interesting to me how tutus came to be what they are. Before they got their more 'classic' design as they developed, there were different variations from each ballet.
And of course, every tutu story begins with a famous figure - that would be Carlotta Grisi, of course. She was the most influential dancer of the Romantic Era, and it was the Romantic Era which created the famous and beautifully billowing tutu! But it took a few steps.
The era began around the 1830s with a ballerina called Marie Taglioni and the ballet La Sylphide. Now this La Sylphide ballet was the big turning point in ballet and the most influential choreography of the time, if not one of the most important ballets of all time. Imagine if something today is as popular as something that was so influential in ballet! Can you even imagine that sort of cultural impact?! Marie Taglioni and the choreography of La Sylphide completely revolutionized ballet, itâs important to realize. But we need to consider how that choreo played out and how she needed the outfits.
The famous romantic ballet of the era was performed in a costume designed by Eugene Lamy â imagine this for me; beautiful dancers with dresses which reached almost to their knees - they were very full dresses and were called the romantic era tutu. Now this has got to be one of my favorite tutu variations, there is so much fabric involved it was a beautiful, flowing garment with a delicate silk overlay and a short, close-fitting bodice. It really made the movement more airy, ethereal and elegant and I have to say, when I saw La Sylphide a few weeks ago... that is something worth watching, if I do say so myself! But if we fast forward from Marie to Carlotta Grisi, that romantic era look just had to change for Carlotta - her famous performance in Giselle had her in an exciting new costume that went much higher, almost as high as our knees would come these days. That meant that you could see so much more legwork as she danced. The length of the skirt began to climb up higher!
By the early 20th Century though, there was that exciting and well-known tutu with the more structured appearance we see today - they became stiff, fuller, and much more fitted at the top of the garment, and they did all this without actually adding to the amount of fabric they were using for the garments, so really brilliant designers made some great decisions there! There were actually very good reasons for the changes too! The structured design of the ballet tutu meant the dancers were able to achieve some impressive, dynamic movement which was just more appealing. Can you imagine those beautiful swirling, spiraling, leaping steps in something billowing like a romantic tutu! I'm not saying you couldn't, of course, I love the romantic era. But the dance movements and ballet were definitely starting to develop in the 1900s! I guess the new tutu shape went hand-in-hand with a more dramatic choreography!
One thing which strikes me in these historical tutus though is that the ballerina looked as though they'd stepped straight out of a fairytale - all those billowing skirts and light tulle, it was a completely magical vision. Today, a tutu is much more athletic and gives us much more freedom to see the form of a dancer and how they're performing, and so it is very much the product of dance steps developing and becoming so dramatic!
Of course, now, even within our modern era, we have some great dancers to inspire a modern fashion scene! If we're looking at what todayâs ballet looks like, there's the glorious work of designers Christian Lacroix who was the first designer who ever brought a fashion couture vision into ballet, something that, before he started designing, had never been done! He created some real excitement in the ballet world - who could forget his Moulin Rouge with it's bright reds and bold colours?! And who would not remember his magnificent tutus with a giant bow that sits on the skirt's back, but what is especially great is that the look of a Lacroix costume stays on the dancer no matter what step she performs! You can tell, no matter where she is in the choreography - that's the magic of costume design and really speaks of how beautiful Lacroix's designs are, but I wonder how many designs he's created. That has to be amazing.
So I thought, you know, with 1966 just begging for me to go back to it - this is one year I have got to revisit in the near future. And then it clicked - this was the year of the world premiere of a real masterpiece. Can you guess it?
...The Royal Balletâs 1966 Don Quixote was just fantastic - it was inspired by the original Cervantes novel. I couldnât let this amazing story pass without telling you about it. The amazing Rudolf Nureyev even featured as one of the original dancers. I remember him being a beautiful dancer; it was all a big excitement when I saw this performance. Now that was some ballet!
Today though, I'm getting inspired, it's my favorite color to wear so it must mean that I love how fashion trends come back in cycles and repeat, well, almost exactly as they were.
Of course, I've got my tutu already on. And if you think itâs just me in the world who likes pink, think again, darlings.
Oh, how much pink can we possibly get? Because for every pink outfit you see out in the world, I just know that oneâs coming from me - but, remember I want everyone to be wearing a pink tutu! If you are a bit shy, a very subtle, light pink shade would work perfectly.
Keep those tutus twirling and those imaginations running, darling!
Until next week's Tutu Tuesday, Emma x
Pink Tutu P.S. What are you waiting for?! Get out there and go have a look at Don Quixote. There are sure to be performances running soon!
Pink Tutu P.P.S. Have you any idea how many different colors I have? But itâs definitely true that youâll always catch me in the same bright pink. Iâll be trying my luck at making a pink tulle dress as well soon, it would look so gorgeous if I just knew how!
