Mirrors in studios

[kazdeer]

I am looking for information about when, where, and by whom mirrors were first introduced to the ballet studio and training. Any info and leads will be appreciated. Karen in Philly

[rg]

sorry i didn't s see this post until today.

interesting question.

i know of no historical studies of the ballet class so far as the 'physical plant' is concerned.

i'm not sure, but perhaps there are mirrors glimpsed in one or two or more of Degas's ballet class pictures.

also the front wall of the most prominent, and largest?, classroom in the quarters of what was the imperial theater school's ballet division of imperial russia (and now the vaganova academy and the salle petipa?), is fixed w/ a large, and presumably longstanding mirror.

Bourbon France was of course famous, vide the gallerie des glaces in versailles, for its use of mirrors fixed onto wall. (there would seem to be a mini-version of this in vaux le vicomte - the precurors of Louis XIV's rennovations to the royal chateaux of versailles.)

i have no sense of what the old studios of la scala were like, but others might.

good luck.