#kitri

I feel like we’ve all waited too long to see her dance Kitri again—her energy, charisma, and bravado are “chef’s kiss.”

🩰 ballet hot takes: why does Kitri even exist?

So I was already posting a couple days ago about ballet protagonists being female by default. Truly, actually, honestly, I can think of no better example of this phenomenon than in the 1869 ballet adaptation of Don Quixote.

Stay with me, because there's a number of very VERY interesting things going on here:

1. It's an extremely good ballet. (the score fucks, delightful characters and set pieces, so many iconic variations, so overexposed in the competition circuit, etc) It's bewildering honestly, like how did it come out THAT good? It's like, idk, if someone today was like "lol i'm gonna turn a bunch of Hieronymus Bosch paintings into uhhh first person shooter video game" and somehow it WORKED.

2. Premiered in 1869, which in ballet history terms is right off the tail-end of the romantic era, meaning at this particular point in time, the necessity of the female ballet protagonist was so thoroughly established as to be unquestionable.

3. Don Quixote (the character) is unfortunately a man. This means he cannot be the protagonist. We gotta instead comb through the novel to find a woman, and make the story all about her.

^ The weirdest thing, which only came to my notice after I actually read Don Quixote myself, is that there is no shortage of named female characters in the novel. You got Dorotea, Lucinda, and Marcela in part 1 (personally, I would've picked either Dorotea or Marcela as the most suitable candidate) and then Zoraida, Clara, Camilla, and Leonela in part 2-- yet for some goddamn reason, the character who actually became the ballet protagonist was a girl named Quiteria who's only around for one (1) side quest chapter.

(Basically, Quiteria is a high spirited village girl whose father has betrothed her to a wealthy idiot despite her being already madly in love with a dude named Basilio. The solution to all of this is for Basilio to stab himself with like, one of those prank knives that retracts into the handle, and then beg to be married to Quiteria since he's presumably going to be dead in a few short minutes as it is. Quiteria's dad is like "yeah fuck it sure" they get married, Basilio reveals himself to be totally fine, yay, then DQ and Sancho keep truckin along to the next town.)

In the ballet, Quiteria is known as "Kitri"— a slavic diminutive of a spanish name— which only came about because the cultural center of ballet was in the middle of being transplanted from France to Russia. It was maybe like 40% of the way there in 1869. I'm not sure when exactly her name was changed (it very well could've been on day 1, since this ballet was first performed by Bolshoi, so, Moscow), but nowadays if you were to say the name "Quiteria" to some Ballet Person, they would have no idea who you were talking about. Like, you have to call her Kitri.

Anyway, Kitri herself is SUCH an enigma amongst ballet characters. For one thing, she's loud and rude. For another, she stands around flat-footed with weight on both heels like a normal human person. She even eats onstage at one point. And, unlike other ballet protags such as Giselle or Nikiya who have the whole schrodinger's-virgin thing going on, it's pretty clear that Kitri has had sex, frequently, and with great enthusiasm— AND YET! None of this stops her from embodying all of the traditional ballerina shit as well! She wears a classical pancake tutu during the wedding-act (because she gets one of those also) AND she gets a traditional 4-part pas de deux, with a 32-fouetté sequence in the coda even, but at no point is the audience ever allowed to forget who they're watching. Kitri is precisely the same caliber of person at the end of act 3 as she was at the start of act 1, and she 1000% gets away with it! What the fuck! The fact that she never would've existed if it weren't for the iron-clad insistence that you cannot have a ballet without a female protagonist is just the fucking cherry on top for me. No one is doing it like her.

I do think that from the particular viewpoint of an art historian, the character who best exemplifies the Petipa era of ballet (1860-1900) is not Aurora, it's not Raymonda, it's not even Odette, it's Kitri.

Behold, Nela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta:

Behold, Natalia Osipova:

Nela Nuñez wedding variation also, just so u can see Kitri in a tutu:

Info under the cut!

ill share it here too since its altuyur related, it also gave me an excuse to paint kitris after perhaps 2 years of not drawing them(?) and their chicks. They are the equivalent of a chicken-cat to kyhuine's, and were originally domesticated by eastern steppe kyhuines. Although these tiny bipedal beings are also appreciated in maanul families too

AF 2024 revenge for Grox on artfight , featuring his kyhuine character "ki'tiki". a kyhuine mixed with a salt flat kyhuine and a mierthri kyhuine. Offsprings of mixed mierthris are not capable of gliding.

Lana: A relatively young angel (under 100) who only participated in a few dozen Exterminations. Filled with anxiety, self medicates with weed. She was injured and thought killed during the last Extermination, leaving her stuck down in Hell. Daughter of Adam (metaladam) and Lute (morsinplumis). She/Her, Lesbian. Reference Sheet

Moa: One of the oldest Exorcists, born without arms and compensates by using her wings as "hands". Around the middle of the flock due to her disability, not the best nor worst warrior. She/Her, Lesbian.

Ariella: A party girl, likes to help her fellow Exorcists (and other folks too occasionally) get some... relief after a stressful day. (Sex. She offers sex. Exorcist bicycle.) She/Her, Bisexual.

Alessandra: Serious warrior, always trying to impress her superiors. A little uptight, leader of her own squad that she runs exactly like how she was trained. Has a bit of a "hero"-worshippy crush on Lute. She/Her, Lesbian.

Zenith: A medic for the Exorcists, possibly cross-trained under Saint Raphael for a period before working full time in the compound's medical facility. He/Him, Transgender, Straight.

Kitri: Used to be one of the better performing Exorcists before the hotel battle, where she was left blind and partially deaf after being too close to an explosion. Taken care of by her younger sister Nashira (brxkenhalos), though she still has to tell her sister to care for herself too. She/Her, Aromantic, Bisexual.

enter: kitri aesthetic [don quixote]

ballet characters

Alors, on danse ?! 😁🕺

Avec Ivan Vasiliev "Kitri"....

What I’d wear to see Don Quixote ౨ৎ