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The painting shows the star of the show dancing a solo turn on an empty stage. Other dancers can partly be seen waiting in the wings. The ballerina is on her toes, completing an arabesque which Degas renders very precisely through the positions of arms and the one visible leg and the slight inclination of the head too.
This picture typifies Degas's lifelong fascination with dances. It is not executed solely in pastel, the artist made use of the possibilities of mixed media to convey the airy quality of the tutu and to juxtapose surfaces executed in the finest detail with swiftly and sketchily coloured surfaces.
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