St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-03
A ST. PAUL BALLET.

do not suppose there is one woman in st.
Paul who does not deep down in the very
depths of her heart consider herself the pos
SCISSOR of a fine figure and queenly carriage.
Even the woman with a squint consoles her
self with the reflection that she is a fine fig
ure and that she walks gracefully. Still.
there are very few women who would not
shrink from openly ayowing their belief in
their own symmetry; and when ballet girls
are advertised for, although they alf'know
they would be visions of lovelinesS in tights,
most women don't answer the advertisement.
tit a lamentable fact that the human form
has so degenerated that welI-shaped girls are
hard to find. A large travelling troupe carries
the greater part of the ballet with it, but it
usually needs ten or a dozen extras to
nil up the stage. The willy man
ager advertses for thirty tall hand
some, well-formed young ladies'" One i'm
AGNES Hebes and VenuseS by the dozen
tocking to the stage door. In point of fact
they are anything but models. and the man
ager with difficulty selects the needed doz-
EN-. There are the half dozen or so regular
extra ladies' of the theater. They are al
ways employed as mobs or guests, or anna
IONS or peasants. or anything else that fills
up the stage They are simply occasionally
used stage furniture. Then there are Name
names may be, from the hotel or restaurant
where in starched pink ginghams and impOs-
sIble aprons they chew gum and serve meals.
believe the technical term is 'haShers.n A
factory girl or two, an actress out of an en-
gagement housemaid and two giggling
school girls on a lark make up the number.
They roam around the theater, stumble over
packs of scenery, get in the stage carpenters
way, and'are general nuisances till the man.
ager and the ballet master arrive.
Cookie shells and silver bells and pretty
maids all in a row" saws Mother Goose. For
silver bells supply the constant banging and
hammering OF a gang of stage hands. For
cookie shells rows of CHASTITY shrouded seats,
and the pretty maids all in row are there TO
speak for themselves. The ballet master ar
ranges them in a row, and one by one they
go down before the fire of the critical man
agerial eye, till all the impossible ones are
weeded out. They are to rehearSe grass
hopper dance. The ballet master sings the
aria -la-a-la-la-le and counts time. Two
airy steps forward, and then few graceful
grassho9pery hops he performs to show them
how it is done. Four girls start with the
wrong foot. One tangles her shoe heel in
the braid of her dress. One wObbles against
her neighbOr and throws her out of line, and
half of them walk on their heels instead of
their toes. One girl is SO hopelessly clumsy
that the edict goes forth against her and She
is dismissed.
After dozen trials the movement is
learned, though there is still considerable
vagueness on the part of the dancers as to
the individual locations of hay-foot and
straw-foot. Then there is bit of march,
nd no mol LOT off i,,+o la
mentu wing to swear little He does it in
Italian, fortunately, SO nobody's feelings are
hurt. The girls are so cheerful about it, and
follow the wrong leader and get out OF time
and line so smilingly, that one can't really be
very angry at them; and even il half of them
do insist in Tapping their hands the wrong
way, and the rest act as if their elbows were
grown to their sides, one realizes that they
will learn it all in time. The ballet master is
Job reincarnate, and succeeds in keeping his
temper till finally the movement is per
formed charmingly. There are few more
rehearsals, and before the first performance Il
grand rehearsal of the whole company with
the dozen extras.
The extras are not costumed till the night
of the first performance The management
provides everything even to slippers. De-
casiOnally an extra wea kens at the last mo-
ment and refuses to don tights, and some
times girl is so painfully conscious of her
knees that she dances stiff legged; but for
the most part the new extras are very little
subject to stage fright, and feel perfectly at
home in tights. One extra not very long ago.
Il very handsome girl appeared for the first
time. She put on the tights and trunks, and
what little else the costume provided, but
she left her rosy cheeks guiltless of powder
and rouge. The wardrobe woman endeav
ored to make up her face for her. Miss Ex-
ira refused to be made up. The manager
was summoned, and Miss Extra, with the
twang of Erin in the turn of her tongue, said ::
IN wear the SCOT the stOckinS an the he'll
met, and all of it, but. be the powers. I'll
wear the face God gave me- She wore it.