The Unlikely Ballerina meets the Little Dancer

February 10, 2016 8:48 PM

Misty Copeland recreates Degas's ballet paintings for Harper's Bazaar.
posted by jacquilynne (9 comments total)

Her foot was turned out too much. And in the the statue she totally misses the petulant thrust of the hip and the tilt of the head. The first comment about 'control' would be less of a journalistic embellishment if the photos showed actual control.
posted by sammyo at 8:56 PM on February 10, 2016

Ouch.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:05 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well Copeland has incredibly clean precise technique so I'd expect the onus would be on the folks controlling the photo shoot. The costume reproductions were not particularly accurate either.
posted by sammyo at 9:19 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

The costumes don't seem to have been reproductions created for the shoot. They had design credits and prices on them that suggest they were selected from existing fashion lines, not recreated from scratch. They're pretty true to the spirit and silhouette of the original costumes for things that were pulled out of the archives of various fashion houses.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:40 PM on February 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's a photoshoot for Harper's Bazaar, not Pointe magazine. The photos are lovely, and I especially enjoyed the behind-the-scenes video.
posted by peripathetic at 10:05 PM on February 10, 2016

Count me among the disappointed - I understood that it was a fashion shoot, but the Degas ballerinas always have a touch of something personal, "the petulant thrust of the hip and the tilt of the head" sammyo mentioned, or a smile, or a looseness of the limbs in spite of the strictness of the regime.
posted by mumimor at 12:49 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well, I thought this was wonderful. I know I can't be the only person who, whenever I see The Little Dancer, automatically hops into a slightly too open fourth position with my hands behind my back to observe.

Incidentally, until February 12, you can watch the new hour long documentary from PBS about Misty Copeland online.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:04 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Degas was an impressionist painter capturing an experience in one image/form. A photographer can get lucky in capturing the few milliseconds that represent the whole of that same experience, but it's a lot to ask of a magazine photo shoot conducted by someone who is not Degas. While I understand why the images of the original art are included, I suspect the images of Copeland are suffering from the immediate and direct comparison. (Or like peripathetic said - it's a photoshoot for Harper's Bazaar.)

Anyway, this is a lovely idea for a shoot, and how terrific for her to be properly represented as both art and artiste.
posted by synapse at 6:18 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

I liked them, with only a complaint on the positioning of the light. I'm also neither a serious art or ballet connoisseur.
posted by Atreides at 8:16 AM on February 11, 2016