Soubrettes

[Marga]

The gamine thread led me to think of another typecasting category in ballet: the soubrette. The ballerina who immediately comes to mind, and who always personified this type of dancer to me, is Suki Shorer.

One requisite of being a soubrette, I think, is short stature. Same goes for gamines. Anyone disagree?

Soubrettes are seldom, if ever, romantic leads. They are saucy and cute and never angstful. They know more than they show, however. You get a sense that they might even be the ones really in control of the ballet! ;)

[Alexandra]

Thanks for posting this, Marga. It's a category that still exists, but few people use the word any more. Yes, short (and short lines) but not necessarily cute and perky, although that's the way soubrette roles are often done.

Watching the film "Violette et Mr. B" I thought Verdy danced Tchaikovsky pas de deux a la soubrette -- there was a real zest and pounce in her dancing -- yet, of course, she was also very sophisticated, depending on what the role demanded.

[vagansmom]

I'm wondering if Xiomara (spelling?) Reyes at ABT would be categorized as a soubrette?

[Marga]

I saw Violette Verdy dance many soubrette parts, now that you mention it! She had the best look on her face, too. All-knowing, triumphant, yet always couched in a twinkly smile.

Marnee Morris, of the same NYCB era, the 60s, was a brilliant technician. Petit allegro was her forté and Balanchine always used her to stun the audience with her quicksilver batterie. By dint of her intriguing speed, I think she was a soubrette, too.

[Ari]

I don't think Marnee Morris can be classed as a soubrette, Marga. She was quite tall and usually got the "Amazon" roles, in one case literally—she was the quintessential Hippolyta!

[Marga]

Marnee Morris was tall? Just goes to show you what happens when old age begins to seep in. I remember her as being short! I saw her dance just about every Saturday afternoon for years.

Some things I remember with such clarity, such as the alabaster skintone of Suzanne Farrell (I was convinced she was told by Balanchine to use white powder to make herself stand out, but I was wrong. She talks about her white, white skin on "Elusive Muse").

Thank you.....I will certainly take your word for it and adjust my mental images of Marnee Morris! (It may take some doing -- I can see her jumping and beating in front of my eyes right now....)

[Lovebird]

I think the quinntessential soubrette was Merle Park and Patricia McBride.Sometimes I think that Darcey Bussell could be seem as a soubrette but her height counts her out.Right now,at ABT Paloma Herrera and Ashley Tuttle seem like soubrettes and at NYCB Ashley Bouder is the closest they have to a soubrette,maybe Yvonnne Borree.

[Leigh Witchel]

Bouder and Somogyi are both built like soubrettes, but both pack too big a wallop to be the quintessential soubrette. McBride and Schorer are good examples of the type at NYCB.