Well this is interesting

[chgoliz]

As a former (amateur) ballet dancer, I am so happy to see this:

'That took long enough!' – black ballerinas finally get shoes to match...

[gadgetgirl]

As with band-aids, though, I’ve never met anyone who actually is that pale peachy pink. Either white people used to be a lot peachier and pinker, or else the colour always did suck for everyone.

[RAvery]

I’ve never met anyone who actually is that pale peachy pink.

I come pretty darn close.

[RAvery]

I’m listening to BBC Radio 3, and I’ve just noticed that Cole Porter stole parts of “You’d be so Easy to Love” from Shostakovitch’s Piano Trio No. 1.

[ChuckV]

As with band-aids, though, I’ve never met anyone who actually is that pale peachy pink. Either white people used to be a lot peachier and pinker, or else the colour always did suck for everyone

I didn’t know the slippers were supposed to match skin tones. Admittedly, I haven’t really spent much time thinking about ballet.

[gadgetgirl]

I didn’t know the slippers were supposed to match skin tones.

I didn’t either. When I’ve read about ballet’s history, it’s always noted the shoes usually come in pink but get dyed to match different costumes.

It seemed weird to me since pantyhose, which are coloured to match the skin tones of white people (and more recently POC) don’t come in that pink colour, at least not commonly.

In Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitters Almanac, she notes the pink bandage colour was called “salmon” in WWII. Also how she’d hated it ever since

[MalevolentPixy]

colour was called “salmon”

looks at the different colours of the various oncorhynchus species

Hell, even that ain’t accurate.

[nimelennar]

Are you referring to the meat or the scales?

The meat, in my experience, is a pretty close match to the colour “salmon.”

[MalevolentPixy]

Salmo salar, maybe.

But it’s a far, far cry from Oncorhynchus nerka or even tshawytscha. Maaaybe gorbuscha or keta if you squint.

The point being that there are many species of salmon and they come in many, many colours.

[chgoliz]

didn’t know the slippers were supposed to match skin tones.

The point of having same-color tights and shoes is to make it seem like the legs are even more elongated.

[PatRx2]

“A good composer does not imitate; he steals.”

[ChuckV]

The point of having same-color tights and shoes is to make it seem like the legs are even more elongated.

And that they had no feet?

[LearnedCoward]

I’m not peachy pink, but I am actually paler than the band aid.

[noahdjango]

while we’re on the topic of interesting things and ballet, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd positions etc are the same in both ballet and fencing, harkening back to the time when young men studied both (probably just the nobles/elites tho). I audited a semester of ballet in college after a few years in my high school fencing club and when the ballet instructor explained it I was like “oh, yeah. they are the same.”

IIRC ballet was male-exclusive in the beginning? anyone know if I’m remembering that right?

[nimelennar]

IIRC ballet was male-exclusive in the beginning? anyone know if I’m remembering that right?

Ten minutes of Wikipedia research says not “male-exclusive,” but “male-centric.”

It sounds like it evolved from Renaissance court dances, and thus had both male and female roles to play. The men, however, were the stars up until the nineteenth century, at which point (pun intended), ballet moved towards featuring the ballerina.

[smulder]

The men, however, were the stars up until the nineteenth century

I’ve only seen ballet live once, not sure I stayed for the whole thing but the most dramatic move while I was there was a dude jumping really high and far across the stage. The audience applauded.

[chgoliz]

IIRC ballet was male-exclusive in the beginning? anyone know if I’m remembering that right?

No idea. That would be interesting to research, but I’ve just gotten home and have to make dinner in 20 minutes and then leave for the evening, so it won’t be done by me, tonight at least!

[ChickieD]

Which it did because the ballerinas were whored out by the head of the troupe, and so then no one really cared about the men.

Sexual Exploitation Was the Norm for 19th Century Ballerinas

[LearnedCoward]

I remember that as well.

Then again, I’m pretty sure I was at a track meet.

[PatRx2]

It sounds like it evolved from Renaissance court dances, and thus had both male and female roles to play.

Court dance crossed with theatre - Louis XIV’s favourite pastime, as a matter of fact.