Edgar%20Degas%20and%20the%20Dance%20by%20Theodore%20Reff - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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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.
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