Edgar Degas and the Dance By Theodore Reff

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Edgar Degas and the DanceBy Theodore Reff
Ballet Class

• Presentation by Kasey Clark and Jackeline
  Hernandez and Edited By Laura Pratt and Dr. Kay
  Picart

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Edgar Hilaire-Germain Degas (1834-1917)

• Parisian who was familiar with ballet as an
  integral part of the elite contemporary scene
• First exposed to dancers in costume through Opera
• Confidant Edmond de Goncourt empathized with
  Degas struggle to depict themes of modern urban
  life in dance, while still creating scenes that
  are aristocratic in manner, elegant in
  taste(218) on the surface
• Wanted to evoke the splendor of the human form as
  in classical Greek art, yet recognize the
  imperfections and realities of body strain
  through dance in a naturalistic fashion

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Ballet Accessible Off Stage

• Paintings find similarities in the _________ of
  dancers and ordinary people
• ...He has fallen in love with modern life, and
  of all subjectshe has chosen washerwomen and
  ballet dancers. (217-218)
• What does Degas share with the patron and
  experience that accompany the performance?
• It was just this dichotomydescribing the
  dancer on the stage in the splendor of her
  somewhat artificial beauty, in her glorification
  under electric lights, breathless with fatigue,
  her features sagging, muscles of her calves and
  thighs bulging, the lines of her body graceless
  and almost brutal (218-219)

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Here he could observe the young dancers struggle
for professional success or maneuver, at the
prompting of ambitious mothers, to capture a
husband or protector among the gentlemen who
circulated freely backstage. (218)
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Transcending Class Through Dance

• It is a world of pink and white, of female flesh
  in lawn and gauze, the most delightful pretexts
  for using pale, soft tints. (218)
• What is costuming an indicator of?

DancerAdjusting her Slipper
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Dancer
Laundresses Carrying Linen to Town
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???Discussion Question???
What particular elements and characteristics of
the paintings make the human form seem realistic
and the dance appear accessible to the layman?
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Behind the Tutus

• To create beauty out of dreariness was essential
  to his naturalist conception of modern art.
  (219)

• What are the majority of Degas sketches and
  paintings done from?

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After the Bath
Bathers on the Grass
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Final Thought

• Ordinary people were his muses in order to
  represent the paradox that is the highly esteemed
  notion of ballet as performed by dancers who were
  typically far from aristocratic
• According to Degas, there is no arguing among
  the muses. They work all day,very much on their
  own. In the evening, work finished, they get
  together and dance.(223)

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Works Cited

• Center Stage." No date. Online image. Internet
  Movie Database. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.imdb.com/title/tt0210616/.
• Center Stage. Dir. Nicholas Hytner. Perf. Amanda
  Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt, and Peter
  Gallagher. Columbia Pictures, 2000.
• Copeland, Roger and Cohen, Marshall., ed. What is
  Dance?. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1983.
• Degas, Edgar. Ballet Class." No date. Online
  image. Expo-Shop.com. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist989886815
  type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Before the Entrance of Stage. No
  date. Online image. Expo-Shop.com. 6 February
  2005. http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist9898
  86815type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Waiting." No date. Online image.
  Expo-Shop.com. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist989886815
  type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Resting." No date. Online image.
  Expo-Shop.com. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist989886815
  type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Dancer Adjusting her Slipper." No
  date. Online image. Expo-Shop.com. 6 February
  2005. http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist9898
  86815type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Dancer." No date. Online image.
  Expo-Shop.com. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist989886815
  type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Laundresses Carrying Linen in
  Town." No date. Online image. Expo-Shop.com. 6
  February 2005. http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?ar
  tist989886815type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. Bathers on the Grass." No date.
  Online image. Expo-Shop.com. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist989886815
  type2themestylemusee.
• Degas, Edgar. After the Bath." No date. Online
  image. Expo-Shop.com. 6 February 2005.
  http//www.expo-shop.com/2_1.cfm?artist989886815
  type2themestylemusee.