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About Ballet
The beauty with which the story of Princess Tutu is constructed can be better appreciated with a little knowledge about ballet as a popular art form. Over time, I hope to fill this page with information, insights and links about ballet, including synopses of the famous ballets after which the episodes in Princess Tutu are named and some interesting facts about ballet and ballet dancers throughout history. For now, I offer this teaser:
Click on the thumbprints below to enlarge the pictures in the following strip from Episode 9 of Princess Tutu
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Although Rue later comments that the above is a worthless story, it is in fact a true story. The name of the first ballerina to dance en pointe for the full length of a ballet was Marie Taglioni, a Swedish-Italian ballet dancer who is described as a plain, frail dancer who was never thought to have much talent until her father became her instructor and stared her in the famous classical ballet La Sylphide, a tragic ballet about a man who falls in love with a beautiful fairy creature (the Sylph) and forsakes his worldly commitments and relationships to chase after her. Taglioni's performance as the Sylph wowed the European public during the Romantic Era, affecting fashion, poetry, literature, music and of course, dance. In Russia, after her last performance in 1842, her ballet shoes "were sold for 200 roubles, cooked, garnished, served with a special sauce, and eaten by a group of ballet fans."* Later in her life, Taglioni became a ballet teacher. Among her pupils was "Princess May of Teck, the future Queen Mary, grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, who for the rest of her life boasted that she had been taught to curtsey by Mme Taglioni" * It also might be interesting to note that Taglioni did not dance en pointe with the special pointe shoes that ballerinas use today. The toes of pointe shoes today are made with a block toe and leather arch support. Taglioni's shoes were mere slippers. The toes were probably heavily darned to stiffen them up, but they did not have a box toe made of burlap or canvas, held together with glue and nails and wrapped in satin; the way Taglioni was able to dance on the tips of her toes was mostly a matter of balance and technique.
Want to learn more about ballet? Let me know what interests you most and I'll start working on it!
Famous Classical Ballets
The History of Ballet
Famous Ballet Dancers
The connection between Ballet and Folklore
Movement and Technique
Costumes and Shoes
* Quotations and some information on Taglioni is credited to the following website: http://www.peopleplayuk.org/guided_tours/dance_tour/ballet/romantic_taglioni.php