Bewitching Ballet

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Cleopatre ballet costume, designed by Leon Bakst, 1908



One interesting thing I have noticed from reading all about the famous ballerinas is that in their youth, while watching a ballet performance, they are all struck by cupid's arrow. They know that at that very moment the only thing they want to become is a ballerina and the magic of dance fills their life in times of good and bad. Ballet is always there for them.  The ballet that bewitched Anna Pavlova was Sleeping Beauty, for Sono Osato it was Cleopatre, and for Rosella Hightower it was The Ballet Russes.  When each performance was over, all of them wanted one thing and that was to be a Ballerina. Some of them had to convince their families that this wasn't a passing phase, that this was a life choice they wanted to take.


Sleeping Beauty Anna Johannson 1892


All these ladies have one thing in common, that ballet cast its magic on them when they were little girls. They continued under its spell even as adults and after becoming famous ballerinas, just as they always wanted. Through dedication, hard work and passion for dance, they would be the next ones to cast the spell of ballet onto future ballerinas.

Lubov Tchernicheva & Leonide Massine The Firebird 1916


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