The Palais Garnier was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875, at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III. Like many of Paris’s newly refurbished establishments, what it offered to the public was far less interesting than what it offered the wealthiest members of society.
Where restaurants had private entrances and posh, secluded rooms for rich men to entertain their mistresses, the opera house had its foyer de la danse – a specially built room behind the stage where ballet dancers warmed up. But this isn’t all that happened in this exclusive space. The room doubled as a sort of men’s club, where wealthy male subscribers to the opera could socialize, conduct business amongst themselves and arrange for special “favors” from the overworked and vastly underpaid ballerinas.
Girls raised in poverty had little hope of marriage, and almost no career prospects outside of prostitution. As dancers, they could at least dream of eventually landing better roles, or earning a job with the Moulin Rouge. But the keys to this degree of stardom were held by the wealthy patrons of the arts. In exchange for sex, these men could influence directors to award their proteges with plum roles, pay for additional training, and provide better food and living conditions. Without their support, a girl’s career would go nowhere.
For the men themselves, these arrangements were an avenue to increased prestige. Maintaining a Paris Opera ballerina, or even to be seen dining with one, meant you had arrived socially and economically. But it was an ugly game. Many of these girls were the only means of support for their entire families, so it was often their own mothers who orchestrated liaisons and the patronage of wealthy admirers. The girls had no say in who they were sold to. But they understood from the beginning that sex work would be their duty. And they accepted it. The French writer, Théophile Gautier remarked that, “The young ballerina is at once corrupt as an old diplomat and as naïve as a good savage. At the age of thirteen, she could teach a courtesan.”
It was probably inevitable that poor, powerless dancers and wealthy men would find a way to take advantage of each other. But that these sexual politics played out in the dance foyer of the Paris Opera – a room built specifically for this purpose – reminds us that the beautiful veneer installed over Paris during the Second Empire did little to change the darkness of the underclass’s reality.