Degas’ Little Dancer, 14 Years Old

On stage at Paris’ Palais Garnier until 13 July 2010:

La Petite danseuse de Degas.

Dancer, choreographer, and Ballet Master of the Paris National Opera, Patrice Bart, brings to life the celebrated statue of Edgar Degas and the model that inspired it, Marie Van Goethem.  The ballet traces the painful destiny of this Opéra ballerina and evokes the flavor of an era: that of late 19^th century France.

Marie was born into a poor family of Belgian origin.  Her father was a tailor, her mother a laundress.  The two moved to Paris in 1861 where Marie was born, one of three sisters.  They lived in a squalid neighborhood in Paris' 9th arrondissement. 

At some point during her early youth Marie’s father died.  Her mother sent her and her sisters to the Paris Opéra to study ballet.  As a “petit rat,” a dance student between the ages of seven and fourteen, Marie could help support the family. 

There were precious few opportunities for women in 19th century France, particularly the poor and destitute.  Becoming a dancer, at the Opéra or one of the new Paris dance halls such as the Moulin Rouge, was one.  Failing this, the greatest thing a poor Paris mother could hope for was that her daughter be “discovered” and “taken care of” by a wealthy patron of the Opéra.  Thus, mothers effectively prostituted their daughters as a means of survival.

Marie was indeed discovered, by the artist Edgar Degas.  He was fascinated by women and the way they moved.  He asked Marie to pose for him when she was fourteen.  Sitting for an artist, Marie could earn an additional 6-1o francs per session.  As Degas was very secretive about his work, we know little today about what actually happened between the artist and his muse. 

He unveiled La petite danseuse de quatorze ans in 1881 at the 6^th Exhibition of Impressionism in Paris.  The critics largely hated it, calling it a medical specimen, grotesque and primitive.  Marie stopped dancing at 17 and was lost to history.  But her image lives on, housed in a glass box and standing proudly at the Musée d'Orsay, one of the most celebrated sculptures of the Impressionist School of art.

For more information about the ballet:

Palais Garnier

pl. Opéra 75002 Paris
08 92 89 90 90

Image:

La petite danseuse de quatorze ans, Edgar Degas (1834-1917).  Photographed by Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, November 2006, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.



Liberty Leading the People, Eugene Delacroix, 1830

This video, by smarthistoryvideos, unfortunately cuts out before it's supposed to end, but it still gives a good explanation of the 1830 Revolution on the streets of Paris as rendered by the painterly genius of Eugene Delacroix.

Phrases & Expressions: Sabotage

Did you know that the word sabotage originates from French? The story goes like this:

Back in the early 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution took off in France, laborers dropped their shovels and pick axes and left their ancestral fields for work in the growing numbers of factories and coal mines. They sought a better life; they hoped for a better economic future for their families.

But work was hard and conditions were unbearable. People were pushed to phyical extremes on bellies that remained empty day after day after day. They soon lost hope.

In those days, poor French laborers wore a type of wooden shoe or clog called a sabot. And when their hunger became unendurable and their hope forgotten they rose up as one to strike.

They used their wooden sabots to jam the machines of the factories all over France. With their sabots they stopped all means of production. They sabotaged the captains of industry.

Today, the strike (la grève) remains a powerful part of Fench culture, a way for workers to force their employers to sit up and take notice.

And it all started with a wooden shoe.