Magic at the Museum: Degas Dancers

The next two Magic at the Museum characters I am going to introduce you to are the ballet dancers. They come from a painting by Edgar Degas called "Two Dancers on the Stage". Degas painted it in Paris in 1874. The painting shows dancers rehearsing or performing on the stage. The viewers attention is focused on the poses of the dancers, as they are seen from an unexpected angle. If you look closely, there is also a third dancer in the upper left corner (you can just see her blue skirt) approaching the stage. Is is leaving the dance or joining?

I had fun with these characters. Since Magic at the Museum is all about skating and dancing, I had to re-learn a lot of the ballet I had learned as a child to get their graceful movements. I tried to always draw their compositions as if someone had choreographed their movements. They always had to look graceful and composed.