When I was twelve, Gretchen started teaching me the classic repertoire–solos from Giselle, Coppelia, Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty–that every dancer learns.

Michel Fokine’s The Dying Swan, to Saint-Saen’s Le Cygne from The Carnival of the Animals, is one of the most famous of the repertoire, and the only solo Gretchen refused to let me dance. She said I hadn’t lived enough yet.

A Chanel tutu.

ETA: this is Elena Glurjidze of the English National Ballet during a tutu fitting at the Chanel atelier…when the video was first posted it was silent and you could hear gasps from employees as they walked past her dancing. They’ve added the score now and it’s not quite the same.