Figure 1.--

Perhaps no male ballet roles are better known than those of princes. mPrinces or princes are the center of many classic operas such as The Nutcracker or Sleeping Beauty. There are many balets with princes. Perhaps the most famous are the princes in: the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. Unlike some roles, the performance of these ballets requires a boy to perform the prince roles. The actual prince costumes are quite varied. One common feature, however, is that princes are often costumed in white tights. Because of the small number of boys doing ballet in some countries, however, occasionally a girl even has to dance the prince roles.

School productions often have to use considerable imagination in creating costumes because of limited budgets. One dancer requires the Prince Charming costume in Sleeping Beauty. The costume was the best duplicate of the "Prince Charming" in the Disney movie that his mother could manage to put together. He wore black opaque panty hose and a white men's dress shirt that was at least three sizes too big in an effort to approximate the puffy Renaissance-style shirt that the Prince Charming wore. The cuffs and collar of the shirt were folded in and out-of-sight and lace ruffles that his mom bought from the dime store were sewn on. His mother sewed him a red cape that fell down his back to his calves. And she topped it off with a black beret.