Dance is the best art form. This is why artists of other genres continually attempt to capture the incomparable beauty of dance in their own works. We see dance in paintings, sketches, sculptures, and masterful film documentaries like the contemporary ‘Black Swan.’

These various depictions of dance are alright. Of course, we can all agree that they are not as good as the dancing itself, but they are rather cute in their own little ways. Because of this cuteness, I am putting together a series of dance depicted in other mediums. To start with, I have the famed French impressionist painter Edgar Degas.

Edgar Degas looks vaguely annoying

(As a brief aside, Degas apparently rejected the label ‘impressionist’ during his lifetime. However, now he is dead and, like, every art book says he was definitely an impressionist, which goes to show that if people hear something enough it becomes true. This blog is fantastic!)

Degas, whose name is pronounced to rhyme with ‘Vegas,’ was unable to dance and so resigned himself to using his other talents to depict dance instead. All told, more than half of his works feature dance and dancers, pointing to a powerful obsession that Degas never overcame.

While it has been claimed that this obsession was simply with the beauty of dance, the benefit of looking back through history lets us see that he was actually grappling with an overwhelming bitterness towards the entire dance world. This is shown in his many paintings and sketches that depict leading ballerinas with silly port de bras, low extensions, and poor turnout.

What are they even doing, Edgar?

Do not be fooled by those who maintain that Degas was faithfully portraying the level of ballet technique at the time. His brush with dance left him bitter and broken, and he was deliberately satirizing the famous dancers of the time. And in doing so, he captured the true power of dance.