The Sordid Truth Behind Degas’ Ballerina Dancers | Hacker News Reader

The Sordid Truth Behind Degas’ Ballerina Dancers

cnn.com

22 pointsacdanger9 comments

The Goncourt brothers' journal includes a conversation with a theatre owner or manager who says that he's basically running a brothel: he can't pay the actresses a living wage, and that make it up as they can.

Found the reference:

""" --Ça, un théâtre... ce n'est pas un théâtre, c'est un b......

--Oh! Monsieur.

--C'est comme j'ai l'honneur de vous le dire... ce n'est pas un théâtre, non, Monsieur, et c'est tout simple... Je donne à mes actrices 50 ou 60 francs par mois... pourquoi? parce que j'ai 30,000 de loyer... Mes acteurs, je ne leur donne guère plus, vous pensez quel métier ils font tous... Souvent une femme m'attrape pour me dire qu'elle ne peut vivre avec mes 50 francs, qu'elle va être obligée de faire des hommes dans la salle, pour manger... Que voulez-vous, ça ne me regarde pas... J'ai 30,000 de loyer... Donc, mon théâtre n'est pas un théâtre, c'est un b...... """

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14799/14799-0.txt

At this point any club / group at any time in history that involves young people of either gender and older men you can assume has a serious problem with sexual abuse. Churches, Boy Scouts, schools, youth groups, gymnastics / athletics- every single time adults get unrestricted access to young people, this pattern happens.

Nowadays we are wisened up to it far more than before. But assuming abuse happened is far more likely than not.

I had wondered what the historial funding model was for ballet. A pro ballet troupe is a costly endeavor. My daughters ballet school charges 350/month for unlimited lessons, 10 years of lessons would be 42k. Thus I Estimate 1.26 million to train up troupe of 30 dancers. And then there is costumes, shoes, attrition, venue rentals. Nowadays the parents pay for most of this.

The funding model is wealthy parents and a small amount of scholarships for the absolute cream of the crop.

And $350/month is only the beginning. If your daughter wants to become a professional -- if she wants to get into one of the elite schools that train the future professionals -- she'll require private lessons and conservatories. (And don't forget the physical therapy, because it's brutal on your body.)

The pro troupes themselves are funded by fairly costly tickets and massive fundraising efforts. They have large staffs full time devoted to raising money, both regular donors and large gifts from wealthy individuals and corporations. (And COVID is positively killing them, as you can imagine, along with theaters.)

I hope your daughter enjoys ballet. It's a wonderful craft, producing both joy and strong bodies. If she wants to turn pro... well, I dunno what to hope for, since that's a very difficult path, but a very select few do achieve extraordinary things on it. Good luck.

These days it's modeling and talent agencies, and fashion houses. The difference in the last few years is that some of the patrons are getting locked up.

On the vacuum spectrometer I sometimes have to remind operators to push the DEGAS button.

Whenever they want to appreciate science like a fine art.

The analog today would be Jeffrey Epstein judging a beauty pageant.

So what should art museums do? Are they displaying images that shouldn't be displayed?

I didn't see anything in that piece that suggested Degas was guilty of anything other than documenting what he saw - and more truthfully than others might have done. The lurking silhouette looks pretty ominous to me.

EDIT: Well, I kept reading. Guy actually sounds like a nightmare.

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