Debutante

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Debutantes at the Chrysanthemum Ball (2012)

A debutante is a young woman who is “introduced to society”, derived from debut (= first public appearance of French début for beginning, first attempt).

history

The custom of formal introduction to society comes from Great Britain , where the daughters of the aristocracy were officially introduced to the king or queen at court by their mothers or other family acquaintances at the age of 18. The presentation took place as part of a festive ball , an event of the highest social class, and at the same time marked the opening of the annual ball season. From that moment on, the young women were considered socially fit for marriage.

This tradition of performance at court last took place in London in 1958; afterwards Queen Elizabeth II declared the performance at court no longer in keeping with the times.

Debutante Ball

The tradition of balls, however, has spread. The most famous in Europe, the Vienna Opera Ball , takes place in the Vienna State Opera . Traditionally in Europe, women wear white dresses at these events. They are accompanied by specially committed, i.e. platonic partners. In Budapest, for example, the debutantes are led onto the floor by cadets from the Budapest Officers School.

Debutante balls are particularly popular in the United States and Australia . In the USA every major city now has an annual debutante ball. One of the most splendid debutante balls is taking place in the Texas-Mexican border town of Laredo . This "colonial ball" still follows the strict old rules and is danced in historical costumes. This historical spectacle has been celebrated on George Washington's birthday since 1898 and has been organized by the Martha Washington Society since 1939. In Australia, debutante balls are organized by high schools.

Such a ball is traditionally opened by a polonaise by the debutantes, followed by a Viennese waltz . The actual dance of the debutantes is the cotillon , in which they were originally given a special bouquet of flowers by their respective dance partners. In the USA, a debutante ball is therefore also called a cotillon.

Especially in the USA, debutantes repeatedly made careers as “ glamor girls ” of their generation. B. Barbara Hutton (1931), Brenda Frazier (1938), Jacqueline Bouvier - who later became Jackie Kennedy Onassis (1947) - and Charlotte Ford (1959).

Famous debutante balls

Debutants

Since you can only debut at court in the original sense, there are no debutants in Vienna, but the Committee for Young Women and Young Men. Both genders in Vienna are completely equal when it comes to the “debut” and the question of whether there are male debutants was settled at the Vienna Opera Ball.

There are both female and male debutants at the gala ball of the Munich carnival society Narrhalla . Today there are also officially male debutants at the Kaiserball in Zurich.

In art

On the theater or concert stage, a debutante is a person who gives an inaugural role or concert. This can mean the definitely first public appearance as well as the later first appearance in a role or at a certain theater. Fiction authors who submit their first book are also referred to as debutants and the work z. B. as a debut novel and the process as a debut novel.

Colloquial

In colloquial usage, a woman who does or will do something for the first time is referred to as a debutante, especially in artistic professions (dance, drama, music). More recently, the word has also appeared more frequently in connection with sporting events.

literature

  • The Debutante Ball, novel by John Oliver Killens, 1976.
  • The Debutante, a detective novel by Sabina Naber, 2005.
  • Mimi Swartz: Once Upon a Time in Laredo . In: National Geographic . November 2006 (English, online [accessed October 15, 2012]).
  • Karal Ann Marling: Debutante: Rites and Regalia of American Debdom . Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vienna State Opera: The Young Ladies and Young Men Committee