ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the dancer was presented in the ballets, in iconographic representation of the works and in critical comment. The travesty dancer in the ballets not only presented a persona of her own but also contributed to the stage image of the ballerina. The image of the dancer was produced, in different but complementary ways, by the constituent parts of the ballets and by the unifying characteristic of spectacle. Ballerinas and corps shared the function of visual spectacle but were differentiated in the meanings embodied in the ballets and ascribed to their performance. The en travestie performer, eroticised herself, contributed to the image of the ballerina as sexually accessible to her audience, in private fantasy if not in public declaration, for her public image remained romanticised, coquettish yet ultimately chaste. There is a paradox in that, because of their costume and general appearance, the travesty performers were equally as feminised as the women of the ballets.
