ABSTRACT
Legend has it that in 1842, shortly before Marie Taglioni left St. Petersburg, she presented a group of balletomanes with a dance slipper that she had worn. The men had a soirée at which the slipper was cut into small parts and boiled up. The men then ate the parts, and the ‘soup’ that had resulted from the cooking process.1 The history of ballet is full of fetishistic exchanges between dancers and their fans, although few are quite as peculiar as the eating of the shoe. Other ballerinas gave swatches of tulle or some sequins to their more fervent admirers, or they gave signed portraits of themselves. It was in their interests to make such gifts. The balletomanes tended to pledge themselves to one particular ballerina, and they would make sure that ‘their’ ballerina got good ovations. The balletomanes also presented the ballerina with gifts in their turn, and these tended to be a great deal more expensive than a bit of costume or an old shoe.
