I’m in the wardrobe-department basement of Boston Ballet’s Clarendon Street studio, in theory to check out the costumes for the company’s production of Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée ("The Badly Guarded Daughter"), which will open at the Wang Theatre next Thursday, but the only outfit I really want to see is the rooster’s. No, that’s not a typo: Ashton’s version of the oldest surviving ballet in the repertoire calls for a rooster and four chickens (all portrayed by dancers) plus a live pony (and you thought the Russian wolfhounds in Giselle were a big deal). And whether it’s because I was born in the Chinese year of the Rooster or because I spent too much time watching Gonzo on The Muppets, it’s always the poultry that get my attention.
La Fille debuted in Bordeaux in 1789, and even back then they were writing standard ballet plots. The Widow Simone is hoping to marry her daughter, Lise, off to her wealthy neighbor’s simpleton son, Alain; Lise, however, has fallen in love with the poor but honest Colas. Simone tries to keep them apart until Alain and his father can arrive with the village notary and a marriage contract, but of course she fails (that’s why Lise is "mal gardée"), and in the end the villagers persuade her to let Lise marry Colas. It’s a featherweight story that’s grounded by the choreography: a Maypole Dance for the villagers, a "Lancashire clog dance" for Simone (who, in accordance with tradition, will be portrayed by a male dancer en travesti), and a ribbon dance for Lise and Colas whose intricacy and difficulty bespeak the demands of real love as opposed to the fairy-tale kind.
But back to the rooster: company corps member Ilya Kozadayev has kindly offered to model the outfit, which comes in several pieces and isn’t something you can change into in a phone booth. First up: yellow tights with black chicken-leg markings. Men’s draper Erica Ciaglia helps Ilya into the body, which has a puffed-out black paunch and electric-blue feathers (this isn’t just any rooster) underlying the brown and yellow top plumage. A shiny black tail with green highlights attaches to the back; Ilya wears black gloves to hide his hands, and yellow chicken spats slip over his dance slippers.
Meanwhile, crafts artisan and painter/dyer Jill Thibault is showing me the head, milliner’s wool felt contoured into a helmet and covered with feathers dyed light brown, orange brown, dark brown, red. The big felt eye, yellow and black on white, could belong to Daffy Duck. The felt comb and wattle are bright red. Ilya maneuvers himself into the head and, after a little encouragement, demonstrates the opening jumps and flaps.
Charles Heightchew, the company’s manager of costumes and wardrobe, gives me a quick tour of the department, which takes up some 4500 square feet and extends under the neighboring BCA building. Celeste Billia’s shoe section is a department in itself, each dancer’s footwear in its own tub. (Boston Ballet spends some $150,000 on shoes each year.) Jill Thibault’s section includes washing machines and a big dying vat. In the main area, the refurbishers are at work: the costumes for La Fille, which belong to the National Ballet of Canada, have just come from American Ballet Theatre, and they’re not in the best shape.
Okay, so I’ve seen everything, but can I try on that head? It’s surprisingly light and comfortable, and it doesn’t wobble when I essay (having first checked for hidden cameras) those two opening jumps. What dancer would want to play the romantic hero when he could be the rooster?
Boston Ballet presents La Fille Mal Gardée at the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, from February 20 through March 2. Tickets are $26 to $82; call (800) 447-7400, or go to www.telecharge.com, or stop by the Wang box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
