THE STORY BEHIND A SCULPTURE THAT BECAME A BALLET This DVD and booklet edition invites the listener on a journey back to the nineteenth century and retraces using words and contemporary images the origins of Edgar Degas’ famous “Little Dancer of Fourteen Years”. His sculpture combines artistic beauty and harsh reality, since the eponymous “little dancer” was, in fact, a young girl from a poor family, forced to earn a living by posing as a model… Based on research by Martine Kahane, the touching ballet “La Petite Danseuse de Degas” was conceived by choreographer Patrice Bart and commissioned by Director of Dance Brigitte Lefèvre. In many ways it was an opportunity for the Opéra national de Paris to delve into its own past.