Scarlet Slippers

Ruby slippers. Glass slippers-the stuff of fairy tales. I'll admit I'm fascinated by those stories; Hans Christian Anderson's dark story about vanity causing a girl to dance herself almost to death easily matches Grim's grimmest fairy tales. 

In the story, an orphaned girl makes herself a pair of red shoes from scraps she's found. (In some versions a cobblers wife makes them for her) But either way, she loves them and is pleased with what she's been able to craft for herself. She is later adopted by a rich woman who is tricked by the girl into buying her much fancier red dancing shoes-shoes that put the coarse, hand-made ones to shame. These shoes fuel the girls vanity; the girl begins to dance. And dance. And dance without ceasing. After days of dancing, the girl begs a man to chop her feet off (and yes, remember it's a children's story). He cuts off her feet and carves wooden feet and crutches for her. She is finally forgiven for her vanity, but she's paid a high price. The story gets darker, actually, but I don't want anyone to have nightmares. 

Anyway, I'd read several versions of this story, so I suppose it wasn't surprising that when I saw these dancers performing last weekend at Balboa park I was mostly fascinated with their shoes. I probably should've been photographing my sister and nephew that I only see a few times a year, but I was distracted by the the shiny red boots. Aren't they lovely?

So perhaps after my last post it goes without saying, but I do like the idea that vanity is born of things that are perceived as "perfect" and that we save ourselves with humble, handmade things.