Ballet Hussars

In Swan Lake, Prince Siegfried is supposed to get married. In fact, there is a very Cinderella-ish ball with bunches of princesses, and he is supposed to choose one. In the Tchaikovsky ballet, one of these princesses is Hungarian, and there is a Hungarian song during the ball for her accompanying Hungarians to dance to. There is a film of the American Ballet Theater dancing Swan Lake in 2005. The costumes generally are beautiful and fascinating, but the coolest costuming moment for me was the Hungarian dance. Look! They are Hussars! Admittedly, they are odd ballet Hussars, but enough of the elements are recognizible anyway.
You may already know that I have a bit of a thing for red shoes, and red dance shoes particularly. I wear little red dance boots on a very regular basis. So imagine my adoration of these fabulous red Hessian dance boots! With tassels and everything! Then, of course, there is all that decorative knot work on the pants, and impressive braid on the dolman, and even a peliesse (although I admit that the fabric choice is very odd for a Hussar). I don't know who costumed this show, but I absolutely adore it, especially the ballet Hussars!
I think I am developing a fairly serious obsession for Swan Lake and for Hussars. Both at once... this is too much! Add in my undeniable obsession for red dance shoes and... oh my!

La Traviata Ball, or Antonia's Gypsy Ballerina Costume

The ball was lovely, and I've finally slogged through my pictures to bring you a few good ones. There was fabulous music (and the band looked as good as they sounded - too fun!). There were delightful cookies (violins and cameilas - how perfect!). I didn't do a good enough job of photographing other people's costumes, but many of them were wonderful, and it was great to see people getting so into the spirit of things. The dancing was lively, and all in all it was a really nice ball. But to be fair, my favorite part was definitely my outfit. I made so much noise when I walked, and even more when I danced. It was the best! What do you think?

La Cachucha

Ok. Technically, these aren't gypsies. But while I was searching for lovely pictures of balletic gypsies, I started finding all these pictures of Fanny Elssler dancing la cachucha, and several of other ballerinas also labeled with the term. So these aren't gypsies, but they are cute, Spanish inspired ballerina girls. I find that the thick strips of black lace on a colored skirt is a recurring theme in 19th century gypsy costumes.

According to wikipedia (yeah... high quality research for you), La Cachucha is "a Spanish solo dance... danced to an Andalusian national song with castanet accompaniment. Also, "Fanny Elssler (1810-1884, Vienna) was the first one to make this dance popular: she first introduced the Cachucha to the public in the ballet The Lady of the Lake (1812) and later in Jean Coralli's ballet Le Diable Boiteux (1836, "the Lame Devil"). So... now you know. But mostly I just thought they were cute.

Inspiring Ballet Gypsies

Well, not all of these are gypsies. We have Esmerelda, Gitana, and Paquita, but I've also included some very similar peasant-girl ballet dresses, and even a troeador. I love cute gypsy girls! These are mostly from the 1840s and 50s. I think my outfit for our upcoming La Traviata ball must have some serious mid-19th century ballet costume influences.