Edgar%20Degas%20and%20the%20Dance%20by%20Theodore%20Reff

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Edgar%20Degas%20and%20the%20Dance%20by%20Theodore%20Reff

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Title: Edgar%20Degas%20and%20the%20Dance%20by%20Theodore%20Reff

1
Edgar Degas and the Danceby Theodore Reff

Presented by Mina Ford

2
Aims

To explore Degas representations of young ballet
dancers as they relate to urban life of his time.
To understand Degas work within the context of
the theoretical writings of Edmond de Gencourt
and Ludovic Halevy.
To explore the significance of ballet as a
manifestation of both the realistic and the
artificial in movement.
To explore the concept of artificial beauty in
classical ballet and Degas attraction to it.

3
Whos the man?

Edgar Degas(1834-1917)
Painter
Dance is among his most important themes.
Lived in Paris
Introduced to the opera at a very early age by
father
Fascinated with womens labor and modern urban
life.

4
Two Views

Edmond de Goncourt
he has fallen in love with modern life, and of
all the subjects in modern life he has chosen
washerwomen and ballet dancersIt is a world of
pink and white, of female flesh in lawn and
gauze, the most delightful pretexts for using
pale, soft tints.(218)

Ludovic Halevy
Focused on the irony of Degas work and argued
that he offered the insiders view because he
presented the dancers behind the scenes and as
real people. This contrasts their presentation
as a theatrical spectacle.

5
And now for a question

What is the dual attraction that Theodore Reff
writes about when expanding upon Degas
fascination with the ballet?

6
The realistic/artificial dichotomy

Reff concludes that Degas was attracted to the
ballet both for its theatrical illusion and for
its gripping reality.
He could respond with equal interest to the
pathos of the dancers daily existence and the
magic of her momentary glory onstage.(219)

7
More commentary

The writer, Champsaur, describes the dancer
onstage in the splendor of her somewhat
artificial beauty but also backstage,
breathless with fatigue the lines of her body
graceless and almost brutal(219).

8
The Classical ballet was for Degas a supreme
example of formal, disciplined, even artificial
beauty(219).
9
the dancer in Degas work is often and
embodiment not of feminine charm but of the
lower-class womans struggle for survival,
burdened and deformed by her labors(219).
10
Discussion Question

What is your take on Degas balanced portrayal of
the dancers as both specimens of staged beauty
and members of a working, sweating, society? Do
you feel that this concentration on the
preparations of the dance and not only the dance
lead the public to a more complete understanding
of dance itself?

11
Perhaps

When we see the dancers straining onstage yet
presenting themselves as flawless, graceful
beings we are only struck with their perfect-
tion in illusion. When we see them fixing a shoe
or resting, we see their perfection in reality.

12
More Discussion

What effect do you think Degas often close and
personal relationships with the young dancers had
on his paintings of them?

13
Possibilities

He idealized them in his paintings.
The friendships he had led him to know the
dancers as more than pretty people on a stage
therefore he painted them as such.
In painting the girls taking part in commonplace
activities, Degas was, in effect, creating yet
another illusion out of reality.

14
Lets look closely at some paintings

The Dance Class

15
Everyday People
16
Final Discussion Question

Do you find that presenting dancers in rugged,
real and brutal poses somewhat shatters the
illusion that they create in the dance onstage?
If so, do you think this is a good thing or a bad
thing? If not, explain.

17
Many views, as well there should be

Degas presents the typically idealized female
body in an entirely new fashion, thus destroying
the rigid and programmed nature of the classical
ballet and its hold on the body.
Painting the dancers making natural movements
expands upon painting them making staged and
planned movements. Degas presents a complete
picture of both the dance and the process
involved in creating it.
The significance of Degas fascination with
everyday life is amplified by his representations
of dancers on stage and dancers backstage. Each
of these ways of seeing the dancers enhances the
other.