#long time no tag..

ballet back in the day was extremely gendered (in different ways than one might think, but...also in the usual ways), but there were always characters that didn't fit into the gender binary. androgynous characters appeared often in burlesque ballet, but they were often reserved for depicting "others" as opposed to the racially and binarily(?) uniform french monarchy. ballet was supremely political back then as well, with the hero often representing the king.

the androgynous character's political/racial role in dance history is a whole can of worms that i fear i'm not qualified to really talk about, BUT. what matters here is HOW they were depicted. nowadays, androgyny is often used in relation to an absence of gender, but in burlesque ballet, the word meant an embodiment of both genders--specifically in costuming, split down the middle.

(Mark Franko, From the Royal to the Republican Body: Incorporating the Political in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France, 1998)

in other words, one half of the androgynous dancer was male, and one half was female:

(some mikas to demonstrate the masc/fem sides separately:)

this means that shu's costume in the event (which like totally also represents shumika marriage don't get me wrong) may primarily represent his acceptance of his own femininity/androgyny, and following in his grandfather's footsteps in awakening to his true self.

i read through the raison d'etre story (super engagingly translated by @twilightmalachite!), check out their page for more context n other translations BUT basically:

shu's grandfather had a feminine side (which he disguised in his diaries as a lady named "mademoiselle") and crossdressed in secret, which brought him a lot of happiness. shu sees himself in his grandfather, knowing this: "I am honored to say, my grandfather and I were truly alike."

(shumika is 100% real too btw)

(another note: burlesque ballet was often satirical or lighthearted, and shu and mika express that raison d'etre is part slapstick romcom)

haters will say that crossdressing was a major thing in old european performance art bc it totally was (i.e. "travesti," a type of character performed by an actor of the opposite gender), but like. his grandpa wasn't living in the 1600s lol. taking their story into account, this is such important representation of if not full on transness then euphoric, self-affirming explorations of gender beyond the binary line. this reference to androgynous ballet constuming sort of historically confirms that shu is both masculine and feminine. his acceptance of his true self, seeing himself in his grandfather, and having mika at his side results in his happiest performance like ever.

there is, of course, also the 100% chance that this is just a coincidence. but what with the importance of french performance art to valkyrie/shu, the ballet-like choreography in le temps des fleurs (go watch it again i fear i don't have the power to screenshot everything), and shu's relationship with gender, i choose to believe this was an active and brilliant choice.

one last note abt shumika bc this story is absolutely about them, too:

the white half has pink accents (representing boku/shu) and the black half has green accents (representing ore/mika) :')))) (and the white half still has a black stripe on it, interpret that how you will!)