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The development of Ballet costumes

Gwen Herat

In modern ballet, one sees dancers often only in body tights, much the same you see them at practice. Today, it is accepted as natural but would have totally shocked everyone if they danced in them in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

So, the tutu has travelled down the centuries transforming itself to the beautiful and alluring costumes the dancers wear today from pristine white to exotic colours.

During that time it would have been unthinkable for a girl to show off even a hint of her ankle and it took almost a century, when girls were even allowed to dance professionally.

It was cumbersome for them to dance in their stiff hooped skirt, tight bodies and with elaborate hair-styles. So, they had to be content with little more than graceful walking. For instance, if an effect of flight was required where the dancer was requited to jump, she would be hauled up and down by a complicated machinery.

To me, it really sounds funny but that was it.

But we all in ballet know, when the change came. Marie de Carmargo was the first ballerina to appear in a shortened skirt; that too slightly revealing her ankles. She was immortalised in the famous painting of Lancret which is in the Wallace Collection in London.

One can see the effect that the painting had on the musicians playing for her. One is concentrating at her twinkling feet more than on his musical instrument. She was hailed for performing the first ‘entrechat’ and was noted for her brilliant footwork. To reveal this display, her skirt had to raised but it took another fifty years before the skirt was raised much more to reveal the dancing feet.

The other great ballerina at that time was Marie Salle who also fought against the restriction caused by the costume of the day and went on to dance in a flowing Greek tunic in the ballet, Pygmalion which suited the subject. But she was not allowed to dance in Paris and had to restrict herself in London. Then came the breakthrough with Mallot’s invention of body tights.

He was the costume designer with the Paris Opera Ballet. Under lights, the dancer never appeared nude although it took some time for acceptance. The Pope grudgingly allowed it on condition that the tights should be in blue.

At last the barrier was broken. The freedom to move and dance came easily. The arrival of the Romantic ballet saw a costume designed that was to become the standard dress for the ballerina. It was the long romantic tutu with its bell-shaped skirt cut just below the knee with a fitted bodice.

To this date, we all can see ballets such as Giselle and Less Sylphide in such costumes, created almost a century later. Ballets such as Coppelia and Don Quixote introduced colourful costumes following the Romantic era. By now, the ballerina was allowed to dance in short classical tutus. This showed off their brilliant steps that were hidden from the audience under long dresses.

With the entry of the twentieth century and with full liberty allowed for dance, costume designers spread out in many directions along with world’s top dress designers making their contributions as well.

So, the choreographers had the choice to costume their dancers the way they wanted to.

Anthony Dowell, Derek Rencher, Peter Cazaler and John Fletcher are some of the British dancers who took up to costume designing. Another dancer called Normal McDowell who created the title role of Carter’s Witch Boy went over to professional costume designing.

Every choreographer knows that costumes must be functional and not overdecorative and make the ballerina comfortable and confident when she dances. Fortunately the costumes are sensible than they were in the last century.

Especially during the exotic Diaghilev period. The French artists who were attracted to the stage, could possibly not understood the development of ballet and depended on their paintings for inspiration.

Ballet costumes always exerted fascination over designers because of its physical connotations. It evolved side by side with artform. There is no doubt that the costume is a part of the dancer’s equipment for vision and helps the dancer in controlling her characterisation.

The classical ballerina’s tutu maintained at its simplest form, will liberate her to complete freedom to display her technique. It also does wonders for the ballerina to enhance her individual personality.

For example, when Margot Fonteyn at fifty two years of age, danced the fourteen-year-old Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, no one noticed her age even against the youthful Rudolf Nureyev who was twenty years younger than her. Along with her marvellous and immaculate dancing, it were her tutus that made it possible.

The great Diaghilev may not have invented colours in the tutus but he paved the way to its achievements. Today, we see the ballerina dressed in pastel to bright colours in some ballets. Swan Lake may be an exception where white is associated with. Or for that matter, The Dying Swan remains an all-white ballet.

Personally, I feel that ballet costumes whether they are tutus or otherwise, should remain pristine white the way they commenced centuries ago. White, some how or the other, represent the all-important classicism found in its syllabus. May be one of these days when I open my piano, I will find the black/white keys have been replaced by colour.

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