Gigi Reviews: Les Secrets du Ballet — Chapter 2 🎭🐷

What it is 🔍

The concept, for those who were not there: instead of making you sit through a whole three-act ballet where you clap politely and secretly count the tutus, they dance EXTRACTS — the good bits danced full-out with music, lights and costumes (costumes apparently borrowed from the Paris Opera, by the way) — and a voice-over tells you the secrets while it happens. Why the steps look like that. Where they come from. Why dancing on pointe was invented. Why the romantic era put every ballerina in a long white skirt and called her a spirit. How the “floating” illusion actually works. All the gossip of ballet history, basically, and you KNOW I respect gossip as an art form. 🤫 Chapter 2 is the romantic one — floaty skirts, moonlight, girls playing ghosts and spirits, the era when everyone on stage is either in love, dead, or both. Peak drama. My people. 🌙 Extracts included Giselle, the swan moments from Swan Lake, the famous Le Corsaire pas de deux (the one with all the big jumps), and a La Esmeralda section. 🔔

My highlights ✨

The voice-over. It comes mostly at the beginning, to introduce and set the tone, and in-between the dances (or shall I say, demonstrations?). And when the voice takes over, funny and straight to the point, like a really good history teacher hiding somewhere in the ceiling, dancers on stage demonstrate. I have honestly never seen anything like it in a theatre. History, minus the boring. A concept I strongly support. 📚

The dancers were having FUN. You can tell, you know. Most of them genuinely seemed to enjoy being there — and when the dancers are having a good time, the whole room has a good time. 💫

Quasimodo. I loved the La Esmeralda section. I know La Esmeralda — the one with the famous tambourine variation, in which Quasimodo is basically an actor, he barely dances. But plot twist, turns out there are like at least seventeen versions of La Esmeralda, and in this version I was like “Who is this hunchback?” He really DANCED: bent, broken, and honestly heartbreaking. A character who is not pretty, dancing beautifully. That’s range. On his part and on mine, for appreciating it. 🥹

Spotted 👀

Dancers from the Paris Opera — and the étoile of the evening was Mathilde Froustey. I already knew about her from a podcast (mommy listens to approximately one million podcasts — this one was something like “Froustey, l’étoile voyageuse”). Her story is a good one: trained at the Paris Opera school, entered the company, climbed the ranks… and then plot twist — she left everything to join the San Francisco Ballet as a principal. And she LOVES it in the States: different way of working, and that’s where she discovered the whole conditioning side of ballet — training your body like an athlete, not just doing more pliés and hoping. 💪 Respect. Leaving the Paris Opera takes nerve, especially when you have been there since, like, 9. And seeing an étoile up close, in a normal-size theatre, is exactly how you should see one at least once: close enough to see that “effortless” is a scam. It is enormous effort, expertly hidden.

What could be better 🤔

More of the famous classical variations. You know the ones — the ones you see at every competition: La Esmeralda’s tambourine variation, Kitri, the greatest hits. 🪘 I would have loved more of those — ESPECIALLY danced by the étoile. When the big classics appear, the room notices. And I know, you’ll say “we have seen them a hundred times” but there is a reason they have survived two hundred years.

The décor. There isn’t one, really. Or if there was, sorry not sorry, I did not notice. I know it’s a lot to ask, and for a touring show like this. The Paris Opera costumes make up for a lot. But a full ballet with real sets is a different feeling, and I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. 🏰

🐷 Princess Piggie Rating: 3.5 / 5

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The verdict: GO ✅ 🐷💰 — worth emptying your princess piggie bank

Accessible to absolutely anyone — it’s Ballet for Dummies, and I mean that as a compliment: like the books, it’s still genuinely interesting even when you already know the topic. Funny, never boring, danced by top-level dancers. We had a great time. And one thing I did not expect: it is not just pure classical. They show you really different styles — different eras, different moods, things I would never have bought a ticket for on my own. That is honestly the secret superpower of this show: it opens your mind, and you get to find out what YOU like in the whole variety of styles and eras — without committing to a full evening of any of them. 🧠✨ Go — and then let a real full ballet finish the job. A good one. Ask me which, I have opinions. 💅

Gaby’s take 🐠

For the new readers: Gaby is my twin brother. Yes, twin. No, not identical (he is a BOY. I am a GIRL. THINK PEOPLE, THINK!!!). As the brother of a dancer he sometimes gets dragged through a show, and his reviews will appear here when he survives one. This time, however, he managed a narrow, last minute escape: he traded his ticket to a friend and went to visit the aquarium instead. So his official take on Les Secrets du Ballet is: “the sharks were cool.” 🦈 Rating: five out of five fishes, zero out of five ballets attended. We’ll get him next time. 🐷

The official Princess Piggie verdict scale 📏

Every review ends with one of these five verdicts. Learn them, live them:

1. BOMBASTIC CRIMINAL OFFENSIVE SIDE EYE 😒 — don’t even think about it.

2. TOO BAD SO SAD 🥀 — it could have. It did not.

3. NOT BAD BUT NOT GOOD 😐 — if someone invites you, go.

4. GO ✅ — worth emptying your princess piggie bank 🐷💰

5. SLAY 👑 — drop everything, buy the front row tickets.