Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-10-29
LIFE ON TIP-TOE.
Its Financial Value to the STARE
Fairies Who Live It.
Wages OF Coryphees, Secundas and
Premieres-Supply Exceeding De.
mand-The Public Insati.
able for New Faces.
New York Journal

New York Journal
! Considering the trouble ballet-dancers have
to learn their business they are not well paid
| hardly, if at all, better than a chorus
singer IN comic opera, Anybody can be-
| come chorus-singer, almost That is &c
say, 1T needs no very extensive vocal acquire
ments and practice Of only few weeks,
whereas to be a ballet-dancer of any ability
whatever takes years Of study and constant
daily practice. Considering how hard they
work, and how much, it is marvellous few
OF them ever amount to enough to rise out
OF the corps de- ballet TO bee lie cory.
phees, secundas, or premieres. The fact
is that one must begin at very early age
Most good premieres have had parents or re,
latiyes in the business, and they have usually
studied ever since they could control the use
OF their legs. Considering all this the reward
Is Insufficient because a premiere may be-
come celebrated at l6 or IL, and she is done
for at 20 or 27-that is she has to descend
TO the second rank Take season
OF forty weeks for ten years at about the ut
most premiere can make-say 500 week
and the total earnings Of her prime are not
more than $4,000. This is the utmost, and
a. - nv NUN We tiitl IL
over ten years.
But the very great majority Of even those
who have studied all their lives make no such
money as this. They all seem TO sink into
obscurity or poverty after few years unless
they happen to make good marriage, which
is seldom the case in this country, where the
hard sense of the people is against such senti.
mental connections
IL
paid an average Of $50 week This is much
more than they can earn in Europe The
coryphees require SO week at Niblo's and
about SD at the Star aud the corps de ballet
anything they can get, the general price be-
Ing from 5l2 t. SIS week. This is the price of
n chorus singer in every good comic-opera
company. But the work of the ballet-dan-
GERS Is infinitely the harder IL YOU follow
the work Of one of them during an evening
you are not amazed that they are ready to
fall with fatigue when the performance Is
over. They must dance and march, and
then must stand for hours looking on at tho
evolutions Of the principals. whose dances do
not last more than six minutes at time.
But evel this is nothing to the rush and haste
that is made when the dances are over, and
they have to get to the dressing rooms tc
occurs five or six times in the course of an
evening, often more. There are women in
stella who have 70 change as often as ten
times in itself a Wort, of no light conse-
Ql2nce.
But" saii the ,naitre de ballet, to O re-
porter at Niblo's one night between two Of
Tie scenes, himself in torrid heat of per
spiration after having watched and filed
a np l,y,nA r..si
women, closely following their gyrations.
clapping his hands at every change of move
ment To guide them to a new one, "but even |
for this hard life there is always a greater |
supply than demand. dare say there are |
400 or 800 women in New York to-day who |
are out of an engagement, but who can
dance pretty well The public. you see, is |
Unsuitable for new faces. If il finds in bal. |
let half dozen faces with which it is ia |
niiar it is dissatisfied, and accuses the
management of foisting old ballets on it, |
That is why the supply must necessarily |
come from Europe, where the wages are
even much smaller than here. Mere numbers
on the stage do not count much if they dc |
not know how to dance. II is better to have
a small row Of good dancers and pretty. well.
formed women than big row Of people whc
do not know how to dance and who are not |
good looking. Fill your stage well. but dc
not oyercrowd it, for the effect is worse that
way than 10 have no lady at all upon the
stage"
Most of these newly imported women live
in cheap foreign boarding houses near the
thcater, where the fare, however, at s. and
90 week is infinitely better than what would
be obtained in an American boarding house
at the Same price. The betterpaid women
live further uptown and in a better class of
houses, but it is noticeable that they
are very economical and save as much
OF their money rs they can. They come to
to save money, not to spend it. The
conduct OF the women Is very good, and here
there is an absence Of the stage
door MASKING business, which would be in
,uil blast II we were running comic opera
or burlesque company with English or
Americans. 1t is not at all habitual to find
among ballet companies mainly formed of
Italians the loyelnesS that prevails among
those named
The hest dancers ara divided between the
merits Of the Grande Ecole, which is that of
Milan, and the Ecole Moderne which is that
If Paris and Vienna The first adheres to
he old-fashioned pas seul and pas de deux
and groupings, with great bounds and diff
,ult pirouett,s The modern school seeks to
&c pretty and graceful and eccentric. and is
iow most in vogue, though not so legitimate