This image is courtesy of the old ArtMagick site. Degas loved to paint ballerinas and this, in my opinion, is among his best.When I was young, I dreamed of being a ballerina and that dream lingered all the way into my late twenties, manifesting in my imagining myself on the stage whenever I saw a ballet. Our small town was able to afford a combination tap/ballet teacher for only a couple of years when I was in grammar school. I loved both and still remember some of the tap steps. I also loved the feeling at the end of that first year when I was allowed on my toes in the ballet slippers. I was a swan. I was transformed. She left at the end of that year, but the moment remains.
7 comments:
I so glad you appreciate it, too. They look like flowers, scattered across the stage.
I am amazed at how many similar experiences we have. Perhaps it comes from growing up in those distant times.
ginger~
Hi Ginger
Yes, I think we grew up in times that won't ever be repeated with the same innocence ever.
Let's hope not.
Ginger
If you read this, I sent you an email yesterday about something entirely different, using the one in your profile. It bounced as undeliverable. I'll try again later today to see if it was a fluke.
Pris - You, a swan? Ahhh, go on! (shades of Danny Kay and the Brothers Grimm). I've always been an admirer of Dégas - as well as beautiful images, he painted the backstage scenes, the hard grind of the life of these young ballerinas (many of whom were procured as 'comfort girls' for the ballet's rich patrons.) Degas saw it, warts and all, the reality behind the dream on the stage.
Thank heavens for us all that you became a poet, Pris!
Hi G
Yes, years ago I was friends with a man who did massage for a ballet company. Talk about the toll on muscle and tendon behind the scene...the glamour of it's nice, but the reality,not so much.
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