Dance – 5-Minute History

Ballerinas are to Degas as lilies are to Monet.

Art is not what you see, but what you make others seeEdgar Degas.

Dancers on Set by Edgar Degas, c.1880_inset 1

And “make us see” is what he does with exquisite aplomb. He renders the beauty of fleeting movement, of ballerinas in mid-performance, with a luminous quality. But he also captures the human side of ballerinas, in their simplest, most intimate moments—warming up, stretching at the bar, practicing positions, or talking in the dressing room.

At the ballet, Degas found himself. It satisfied his penchant for classical elegance and put to use his rigorous academic training from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris—one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious fine art schools.

He frequented the Palais Garnier—the home of the Paris Ballet and Opera, lurking in the wings and foyer hoping to befriend the influential patrons who might gain him access to the private world of ballerinas.

Mimed poetry, dream made visible.

Degas’s paintings of ballet performances capture the essence of what makes ballet special—the balance, poise, and precision of movement. A contemporary critic called ballet “mimed poetry, dream made visible.”

Degas became a familiar sight for the young ballerinas—some poor, dreaming of becoming the princesses of the stage. One said he “used to stand at the top or bottom of the many staircases . . . drawing the dancers as they rushed up and down.” He noticed everything—from the most difficult of choreographed sequences to the smallest errors—making notes as he went.

In later life, Degas became a recluse, believing that “the artist must live alone, and his private life must remain unknown“. His eyesight was failing him and he spent his last years, almost blind, wandering the streets of his beloved Paris.

He wrote to a friend,

with the exception of the heart, it seems to me that everything within me is growing old in proportion, and even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.

Like the dancing shoes, Degas himself faded away in September 1917, but his work lives on in brilliant color.

Listen to Steven Gutheinz as we marvel at the dancers of Degas.

Rehearsal of the Scene by Edgar Degas, 1872

The Rehearsal of the Ballet on Stage by Edgar Degas, 1874

Two Dancers in the Studio (also known as Dance School) by Edgar Degas, c.1875

Dancer Onstage with a Bouquet by Edgar Degas, c.1876

Two Dancers on the Stage by Edgar Degas, 1877

Dancers Practicing at the Bar by Edgar Degas, 1877

Two Dancers Entering the Stage by Edgar Degas, c.1878

Ballet Scene by Edgar Degas, 1879

Two Ballet Dancers by Edgar Degas - circa 1879 — Two Ballet Dancers by Edgar Degas – circa 1879

Dancers in a Studio by Edgar Degas, c.1884

The Pink Dancers, Before the Ballet by Edgar Degas, 1884

The Ballet Dancers (also known as The Dressing Room) by Willard Leroy Metcalf - 1885 — The Ballet Dancers (also known as The Dressing Room) by Willard Leroy Metcalf – 1885

Ballet Dancers in the Wings by Edgar Degas, 1900

Sources and Further Reading

Degas and his Dancers—The Smithsonian.
Edgard Degas—Wikipedia.org

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The word “Ballroom” is derived from the word ball, which in turn originates from the Latin word ballare, meaning ‘to dance’.

In times past, ballroom dancing was social dancing for the privileged, leaving folk dancing for the lower classes at dance halls.

Court Ball in Vienna by Wilhelm Gause, 1900

From the late 19th century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub.

dance pavilion on Cedar Point, Ohio, built in 1882 — Dance pavilion on Cedar Point, Ohio, built in 1882

Sometimes you had to start small …

Klondyke Dance Hall and saloon, Pay Streak, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909.

Balroom dancing hall of 'Bal Bullier', Paris — Balroom dancing hall of ‘Bal Bullier’, Paris

Financed by Henry Ford, the dance hall at Boblo Island Amusement Park in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada was the largest in North America at the time of its completion in 1913.

Designed by Detroit architect Albert Khan, and constructed of steel and stone, the east side of the building featured a tall cathedral-like glass wall.

Holding 5,000 dancers at full capacity, it featured one of the world’s largest “orchestrions” from the Welte company—a self-playing orchestra 16 ft tall and 14 ft wide, with 419 pipes and percussion section.

Dancing pavilion at Bo-Lo, Bois Blanc Island, Detroit River, 1913

By the 1940’s, most towns and cities in the United States had at least one dance hall, with live musicians playing a range of music from strict ballroom to big band, swing and jazz. Glenn Miller was one of the most famous dance hall musicians of the period.

Olympic Gardens Dance Hall, Hunter Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1948

In Britain during the late Victorian period, dance halls for the general populace were still referred to as ballrooms.

Tower Ballroom at Blackpool, in the north-west county of Lancashire, was one of the most famous ballrooms of the late 19th century and is still in use today.

Its 120 ft by 120 ft dance floor is made up of 30,602 blocks of mahogany, oak and walnut. Above the stage is an inscription from the poem Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare:

“Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.”

View of the whole of the dance floor in the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, England

Spanish Hall inside the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, Lancashire, England

After World War 2, it was time to start having fun again. British couples cautiously transitioned from traditional ballroom to more adventurous forms of dancing like Jive.

A couple at a British dance hall try out the new 'jive' steps, whilst the rest of the hall continue with 'old-style' ballroom dancing, 1945. — A couple at a British dance hall try out the new ‘jive’ steps, whilst the rest of the hall continue with ‘old-style’ ballroom dancing, 1945.

In North America, Square Dancing became ever more popular. Brought over with European settlers, it traditionally involved four couples (eight dancers) arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square.

Square Dancing at North Branch Y.M.C.A., Montreal, Canada

From the grandest of the grand ballrooms to the humble town dance hall, we all love to dance, don’t we?

Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta in the entrance hall at the White House

We’re going to journey back to the Victorian era again, and imagine that we’re working-class folk living in Paris who can’t go to a really posh ball. We make do with Sunday afternoons at Moulin de la Galette in the Montmartre district, where we dress up and enjoy dancing, drinking, and eating galettes into the evening.

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876

When we get home though, we can dance into the night inside our imagination … with a little help from our new toy from England—the phenakistoscope.

This was an early animation device that uses a spinning disc attached to a handle. Arrayed around the disc’s center is a series of drawings, and cut through it are equally spaced radial slits.

When we spin the disc and look through the moving slits into a mirror, we’re magically transported back to the dancehall …

Press play and dance the night away …