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Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?

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ceejeemcbeegee is not here
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
I think those dancers should be more worried about their lack of uniformity than a blasted tutu.
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Zoerly
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
I was a dancer for 18 yrs. Nothing about ballet is comfortable. Don't even think of abandoning the tutu. What next? Point shoes make your feet hurt? Big baby ballerinas. Waaaaah.
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Zorica
02/12/09

@Zoerly: My thoughts exactly. One of my favorite quotes from Suzanne Farrell's class was, "If you want your feet not to hurt, don't be a dancer." She didn't say it meanly or aggressively, but just as a simple statement of fact. It's all difficult, really, and that's the point.
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kityglitr
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Former ballerina here, for 11 years... I LOVE TUTU'S. The beauty, the damn extravagance of them make you appreciate everything you're doing. It's a frigging fantasy! I'm certainly all for using different silhouettes for modern/avant pieces, but they'll never totally get rid of the tutu. It's a visible symbol of the art of ballet.
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Her Grace
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Tulle is a horrible thing to sew, as a costumer, which is why they cost so damned much. That said, I do love the way they look. Frankly, if you're a professional classical ballerina, the tutu shouldn't be at the top of your list of complaints--the shoes come first.
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Zorica
02/12/09

@Her Grace: Top of my list of complaints isn't anything to do with ballet itself, but the competition, the politics, all the stupid games and other things standing in the way of going out there and *really dancing.* If you're going to complain about tutus or shoes you might as well complain about turnout and pirouettes and anything else that is integral to ballet, and if you're truly annoyed by those things, why be a ballet dancer?
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Glitterbug (likes life shaken, not stirred)
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Tutus will never go out of fashion. They might say that, but there are enough snobs out there to want to keep ballet as it has been.

I'm one of them. You can't have ballet without tutus. That's like having a geisha without a kimono. Zhang Ziyi never wore a cocktail dress in Memoirs of a Geisha, did she?!
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swimmingly
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Anytime I watch any sort of ballet/dancing film or show, I immediately start dancing around my apartment wishing I owned a tutu and some toe shoes to complete my look. While they are cumbersome, the Sugar Plum Fairy scene in the Nutcracker would not be the same without them.
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tangoagogo
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
I'm a little concerned about her complaint of not being able to see her feet... When are you ever supposed to see your feet?!?

Also, I dealt fine with the tutus and okay with the pointes, but my personal aggravation was covering my entire upper body in cake makeup. Talk about annoying putting on AND taking off.
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ceejeemcbeegee is not here
01/10/09

@tangoagogo: Yeah, erm... staring at feet and en pointe... not a good combo IMHO.
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Zorica
02/12/09

@tangoagogo: They were talking about the guy not being able to see her feet, I believe, and I have had that issue with partners who don't have good instinct for where I want my weight to be in, say, arabeque penchee. In partnering class when you're just in a leotard and wrap skirt the ones who don't quite feel it watch your foot to see when your ankle starts to pull back and make adjustments off of that. I think in general it's disconcerting for the guy to have so much of you blocked from view, he takes all sorts of cues off of what he can see you doing.
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Somepeopledance
01/10/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
I didn't start taking ballet lessons until I was 11 years old, and was told many, many times that I would never have a career at it. Thanks to the cruel winds of fate (and my genetic structure, all big hips, short legs, and flat feet of it) I never became a professional ballerina (even though I am a professional dancer and choreographer, thanks to other types of dance being much more forgiving than ballet). I did, however, have many opportunities to wear a tutu, and even though they are pretty awful to wear, I have always felt like a "real" ballerina in them. My vote is for tutus - whoever said ballet was supposed to be comfortable?
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Zorica
02/12/09

@Somepeopledance: Agreed. Ballet is about the illusion of a wolrd where discomfort and inconvenience, and physical limitation for that matter, do not exist.
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ceejeemcbeegee is not here
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Huh? Wha?

Spinning tutus? I've never had a tutu spin around me. 'Cuz that ish be attached to my LEOTARD!
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Zorica
02/12/09

@ceejeemcbeegee: The more traditional tutus aren't building on leotard, they're build on bodices, and the bodice is usually made out of a material that has no stretch to it, a heavy material for shape and lining covered by something shiny in a pretty color. It's given its own shape by metal or wooden bones in the bodice, and then that shape has to be tailored around the dancer who will be wearing it. If it doesn't fit you right you definitely feel it bouncing around while you dance, when you turn it swings side to side at the hips and can really throw off your rhythm. A tutu that doesn't fit is like hair that isn't secure, it can start to feel like you're one of those rides at the carnivals with lots of swings on chains, the faster you go the farther everything spins away from you, and if you don't slow down *just so* everything is going to crash.
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CrankyOldBroad
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Babes who don't bitch about their tulle

I cannot imagine the Trocks without their tutus.
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morninggloria
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
I knew I should have majored in tutu costumery in college.
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YetiM
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Never mind tutus -- aren't shoes basically just satin and cardboard? ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch.
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Penny_Esq
01/09/09

@YetiM: And burlap and glue. There's a bit of pliability in the box and shank of the shoe, and most people use toe pads and/or wool, too. They are surprisingly easy to get used to, I guess because when you get permission from your teacher to go en pointe you're pretty stoked and not interested in acknowledging the negatives. Aw, sadface, I miss ballet.
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Zorica
02/12/09

@YetiM: The ouch part isn't in the shoes, it's in what you're asked to do in them. The most painful part of being a dancer, at least for me, is how difficult it is to dance on sore, exhausted, overused muscles. On the rare occasion that I get a blister I put the pain-relieving Neosporin on it and it's numb right away. But when my ITBs are so tight that it wakes me up in the middle of the night . . . there's no numbing cream for that.
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EleanorRigby
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Also? You can't put your arms down. You can cross them, or put them kind of on your waist/hips, but you can't just let them dangle at your sides. It sounds like a weird complaint, but my biceps would kind of freeze up after a while and want to just be allowed to go slack.
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
01/11/09

@EleanorRigby: That's a problem with a lot of dances where "proper" technique for the lady/follower requires hands/arms to always be above the waist.

I had to start a full weight-training program just so my whole upper body wouldn't be immobile with pain by the end of a salsa conference day.
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Zorica
02/12/09

@EleanorRigby: Maybe I'm overly hyper but I never find that while I'm wearing a tutu I ever want my arms to go completely slack. I rest them on the skirt all the time, or else lean over on the barre backstage and stretch. And sometimes I hang upside down and swing, you know, the normal warm-up/keep busy stuff. Then again I haven't done anything for awhile where I wore a tutu and didn't have at least one costume change. I feel like I'm never in costume long enough to get really tired of being in it, unless it's dress rehearsal or something.
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QueenOfTheForest
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
Hey - are those the Trocs in that picture? Love them!
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Zorica
02/12/09

@QueenOfTheForest: Those are pretty obviously women, I would say! But the Trocs do an AMAZING job of that piece. Heck they do an amazing job of pretty much everything. Yet another reason to lament not being born a man.
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pazenlavida
01/09/09

In reply to Dangerous Beauty: Are Tutus Too Much?
I want a tutu now.
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BettyCrockerPunkRocker
01/10/09

@pazenlavida: After all the holiday eating, I'm afraid I'd require a fourfour.

[Ah fourfour. Gotta love Rich!]
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
01/11/09

@BettyCrockerPunkRocker: I am falling over laughing, and it is all your fault.
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Zorica
02/12/09

@BettyCrockerPunkRocker: God I really love that one too, for some reason wardrobe people never think it is funny, maybe they've just heard it too much? But that's the point - it gets better with age!

My other favorite is to say that they should only cast me in a dance with certain super-lithe creatures if the choreology notes say "Dance for three ballerinas and one ballerhino." Whenever I have to pick out a new screen name I am always tempted to go with that but apparently my ego is just a little too large.
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