ElizabethC

With reference to Dancers hair; From my experience as a Professional Wardrobe Mistress with The Royal Ballet, I can tell you quite often the Dancers had hair of varying lengths, but mostly their own hair was long enough to be able to be put in the three main "Ballet Styles", 1. the bun at the nape of the neck, or 2. a French pleat down the back of the head. Then there was 3. a bun on the top of the head. The style at the front around the face, would either cover the ears, with a middle parting.. Another style is when the hair is combed back above the ears, all these style's are held in place with pins and grips, using a bun net the hair combed down and forwards. Depending on the costume design and the Ballet being performed, the dancer may or may not have to wear a wig, in which case their own hair, would be pushed up underneath, and held in place with a hair net, or even with a stockinette type of material and safely fixed in place. It was a very serious offence if a Dancers hair fell down, which resulted in a very strict telling off !! IT WAS SIMPLY JUST NOT ALLOWED TO HAPPEN.

All the Dancers (at least in the Royal Ballet) , had their own "Hair Box", which contained various hair pieces, such as ringlettes, false buns, curls etc, which was specially made for each person and dyed to match the colour of their own hair.

When it comes to Character roles, in the case of Men, they would be provided with beards, mastouches, and any facial hair that might be needed, either to match their own colouring, or perhaps grey to represent age.

I am sorry if this information has spoilt the illustion, but I thought you would be interested to know how a dancer can change their appearance.

Thank you for the interesting information. That must be so exciting to work with the Royal Ballet. I have a question for you regarding costumes if you don't mind. How many costumes are there for the same female principal role, Kitri for example. Is there only one that all of the female leads share or do they each get their own? I've always wondered about that sort of thing and how all the costumes are kept clean. Thank you!

I've noticed this trend more and more. In the past, ballerinas almost always had really long hair that they tied up with a bun, and they wouldn't cut it until they retired. But now I'm noticing that more and more ballerinas have very short hair, and that they use hair-pieces or probably even wigs when performing. Off the top of my head, I think Veronika Part, Uliana Lopatkina, Nina Ananiashvilli, Sofiane Sylve, and Darcey Bussell have pretty short hair. Susan Jaffe I know had really short hair too. I think Natalia Makarova towards the end of her career also had really short hair, and Sylvie Guillem for awhile had this short bob but now her hair's pretty long. I can understand how ballerinas would want a change after a whole lifetime of keeping hair shoulder length or long, but I admit it looks funny when I see pictures of Uliana Lopatkina and she has this super-short cut, and then in performance pictures she obviously has some kind of hair extension/wig. Isn't it easier to just keep your hair long instead of having to put on so much artificial hair during a performance? And can anyone think of any other bobbed ballerinas?

Unrelated: I really like Suzanne Farrell's new somewhat short, permed 'do. I think it looks nice and frames her face well.

I'm not sure if anyone one mentioned Cynthia Gregory or not. One would think it would be simpler to keep their hair long but maybe the long hair tends to get damaged from so much styling, etc.

While dance is not a sport and there are no statistics to keep track of, wouldn't it be great if we could pick our dancers for a favorite piece? In the real world, I believe this is called a gala organized by powerful people... but if I were to pick:

I would LOVE to see Nacho Duato's Romanso with Steven McRae (Royal), Jaime Garcia Castilla (SFB) and Ikolo Griffin (Smuin Ballet). All 3 on one stage would be too much for me to handle; ga-ga!!!

I'm a bit of a ballet nerd and spend hours doing fantasy ballet by myself!

There is a link if you Google her that leads to quite a few Broadway shows. La Cage aux Folles, Movin Out as well as TV, One Life to Live. She was quite a performer. Hopefully she is still doing well in theatre.

Hopefully she is doing well. I was disappointed when she left the ABT. She was such a lovely dancer!

Hello fellow ballet lovers!

I am so grateful to have such a forum where my favorite subject can be discussed by other people who have great information and views to share. I studied ballet for many years in Maryland and Washington, DC and have followed it closely ever since. Unfortunately an eating disorder prevented me from becoming professional but luckily there is a lot more information available for young dancers these days. My favorite company is the ABT!! If anyone has seen any of their current performances at the MET, I'd love to hear about it!

ElizabethC