Artiste or coquette? Les petits rats of the Paris Opera ballet

Abstract

This paper concerns the young female members of the corps de ballet (petits rats) of the Paris Opera from the period of the end of the July Monarchy to the fin de siècle. These ballerinas in training were not daughters of the haute bourgeoisie who lived in the elegant quartiers of Paris. Rather, many were children of the working classes who inhabited a vastly different world in those marginal districts of the capital untouched by Haussmann’s elaborate renovation projects during the Second Empire. They joined the Opera between the ages of six and eight to help support their families and worked six-day weeks like factory workers.

A substantial body of literature suggests that the dancers supplemented their income and advanced in the ranks at the Opera by offering sexual favours to the abonnés (ballet subscribers) and dismisses them as frivolous, superficial adventurers out to better their social position by capturing the heart (and wallet) of a wealthy patron. Gossip columns satisfied the public’s appetite for scandalous intrigues and rags-to-riches stories of young girls who became celebrated ballerinas and/or courtesans. Critics fail to mention that there were among them serious young dancers who were dedicated to their craft. Degas took a personal interest in the dancers’ working lives and their progression through the Opera system, as seen in his letters and notebooks. Some of these young women attained celebrity status, like Josephine Chabot, Fanny Elssler and Eugenie Fiocre. This article seeks to separate the myth of the dancer from the reality of her life by entering the private world of the petits rats to examine their social and educational background and their experience as members of the corps de ballet as well as their life choices.