LADIES OF THE BALLET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 60

LADIES OF THE BALLET.

There is one section of the fair sex in Paris which is profoundly opposed to Wagner andl the modern school of music. This is the ladies of the ballet of the Paris Opera. The Master of Bayreuth was no admirer of Terpsichore, and in his operas obstinately refused to drag in ballets by the heads and heels, as did his Italian contem-, poraries. And when by any chance he did require any exercise of this art, it was placed, as in "Tannhauser," at the very beginning of the piece. This was adding insult to injury; for the admirers of the dames d* ballet were still at dinner, and never appear in the Opera House before the second or third act. Forty years ago the influence of the ladies of the ballet was sufficiently strong to cause a riot in the house and drive "Tannhauser" from the stage and' Wagner from France. But, alas! those days are gone. Themodern composer is ungallant enough to write his opera without the slightest consideration for their feelings. The ballet is in the first act or the last, or there is no ballet at all. It is no mean honour to belong to the Paris ballot. The ballet is divided into three sections — 52 sujets, 92 coryphees, and 64- eleve®. It is said" to be the ambition of every Paris concierge to get her daughter into the ballet of the Opera House, and certainly a large number of them are the offspring of that muchhated class.

The training for a member of the ballet in Paris is most thorough, and is carried out with a care which makes it one of the finest in the world. The 64- eleves, better known as the rats, are selected at the age of eight years. They are selected, in the first place, for their prettiness and intelligence. This thins down the number of candidates by over 50 per cent. The second danger is the medical examination, only children sound in wind and limb being accepted. Every day for an hour they must go through what is known as the "reglements," stretching out their legs while they hold on to the barre fixed to the wall. They must be able to go through all the movements without any sign of outward fatigue, and ar& not allowed to go on to higher instruction. The professors are entirely dependent on moral suasion by word and gesture. JNo child" is ever touched with the hands. If it has not got the gift of carrying out the instructions by the aid of its eyes andi ears, it is no good for the Paris ballet. A dancer who must be placed in the proper position by means of the teacher's hands may as wll abandon the metier; she will never be a success. At the end of the second, or, -.sometimes, the third, year tho elves come into ' Mdlle Theodore's department. Mdlle Theodore directs the firsfe and second quadrille and initiates the maroheuse9 into the mysteries of the eurhythmie. Here the most severe exercises are gone through till every muscle is developed! to its highest perfection. When the pupil has gone 'through this curriculum with success she is promoted to the rank of coryphee. In order to satisfy the requirements of Mdlle Theodore they must know the "five> positions" in deux temps. These "five X>ositions" are the alpha and 1 omega of tho dance, and in them are carried out all the figures used — batteries, arabesques fermes, etc- When pei-feetion has been reached 1 , then, the dancer has reached 1 the rank of sujet, the highest in the Terpsichorean hieraichy. To become a sujet is the ambition of every member of the school, for the sujef has the right to aspire to everything. She can become a great "star" in th& operatic firmament. As every soldier of Napoleon's army carried a . marshal's baton ia his knapsack, so every sujet can aspire to be a Taglioni. The salaries of a premiere danseuse at the Paris opera runs from 40,000 to 50,000 francs a year. It is therefore, a position to be envied. But even if the sujet does not leach this giddy height she enjoys a number of valuable privileges. She is no longer condemned to share in the common dressing room of the coryphees and eleves. She, with a comrade, has the right to a loge, which she has tho privilege of decorating as she pleases. A miere danseuse at the Paris Opera runs premier sujet receives a salary of from, 10,000 to 15,000 francs a. year, so that, as a career, the ballet in the Paris Opel-a is a "many are called, few are chosen." The work is hard, and only girls exceptionally gifted with intelligence, artistic sense, perseverance, and) a capacity for accepting an iron discipline can succeed.