![]() ![]() To modern eyes, it’s the portrait of a child who eagerly awaits her next dance step. One of Degas’ best-known works is his Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, a life-sized statue of a teenage “petit rat,” or ballet dancer in training. There, he recorded behind-the-scenes views of dancers practicing-and captured glimpses of the world of the lecherous male subscribers, too. During the 1870s and 1880s, he produced hundreds of drawings and paintings of Paris Opera dancers, relying on his friends to secure backstage passes so he could sketch the dancers in their habitat. One influential Parisian couldn’t afford the expensive subscription that allowed special access to ballerinas: Impressionist painter Edgar Degas. ‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’ by Degas, 1881. But even those dancers who did succeed independently were looked down on as suspected prostitutes. Some dancers managed to advance without a rich patron, becoming celebrities on the merits of their own abilities, notes historian Lorraine Coons. For many Paris Opera ballerinas from poor backgrounds, a relationship with a rich man was their only chance at stability. Often, girls’ own mothers-who acted not unlike entertainment agents today-helped set up and maintain these relationships. They could lift a girl out of poverty by becoming her “patron,” or client, setting her up in comfortable quarters and paying for private lessons that could increase her cachet in the ballet. Since subscribers were so powerful, they could influence who made it into coveted roles and who was fired from the ballet. Dancers were expected to submit to the attentions and affections of subscribers, most of whom were nobleman and important financiers and whose money underwrote the majority of the opera’s operations. For subscribers, backstage was a kind of men’s club where they could meet and greet other power brokers, make business deals and bask in a highly sexualized atmosphere.Ī painting by Jean Beraud of ballet dancers in the wings of the opera house, 1889.įor dancers, though, it was a place where they were subject to scrutiny and harassment. “Epic scenes took place backstage,” wrote the Comte de Maugny, who described the foyer de la danse as a kind of meat market. Due to their social status, they were free to socialize with them, too. Subscribers could, and did, go backstage to ogle women. In contrast, ballet dancers wore skimpy and revealing outfits (though ballet costumes of the time, which included skirts, were much less form-fitting than today’s leotards and tights). The foyer was a place for them to socialize with-and proposition-ballet dancers.Īt the time, women’s bodies were typically covered by lots of clothing. But it was designed with male patrons, not dancers, in mind. Located directly behind the stage, it was a place where ballet dancers could warm up and practice their moves before and during performances. The building also included a lavish room called the foyer de la danse. The abonnés were so powerful, they were part of the Opera’s very architecture: When Charles Garnier designed his iconic opera house in the 1860s, he included a special separate entrance for season ticket holders. ‘Rehearsal on the Stage’ by Edgar Degas, 1874. “The ballet is…what the bar-room is to many a large hotel,” wrote Scribner’s Magazine in 1892, “the chief paying factor, the one from which the surplus profits come.” Men subscribed to the opera not for the music, but for the beautiful ballerinas who danced twice per show-and, behind the scenes, they bought sexual favors from the women they ogled on stage. And the wealthy male subscribers of the Paris Opera-nicknamed abbonés-were often on hand to exploit them. Often malnourished and dressed in hand-me-downs, the “petits rats” of the ballet were vulnerable to social and sexual exploitation. ![]() In the meantime, they attended classes and auditioned for small, walk-on roles. ![]() Girls who studied at the school became apprentices to the Opera only after years of militaristic training and a series of brutal exams could they get guaranteed, long-term contracts. ![]() Women entered the ballet as young children, training at the opera’s dance school until they could snag a coveted position in the corps de ballet. The Paris Opera House in the 19th century. ![]()
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