Saturday Superstition Left
As I have said before, dancers and
actors are a superstitious lot. This is most evident during performances, and
particularly backstage. But today I ran across a little piece of information I’d
never heard before: always exit your dressing room with your left foot first (presumably for good
luck). I also found out that anyone entering the dressing room should come in
with their right foot first. Hmmm.
It is interesting to note that normally
the word left (in handedness for
example) was consider to mean "bad" or "unlucky", and the Latin word sinistra meant left and that's where we get our English word sinister. And we all know what that means.
So why would stepping out on the left
foot be lucky? My guess is that it is like saying “break a leg” to wish a
dancer good luck – do the opposite of the normal meaning. (Dancers are such a
contrary lot.) Or, it could have evolved from something entirely different. I
haven’t yet uncovered any documentation on where the superstition came from.
If you know the answer, I’d love to hear
from you!
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Theatrical Superstition #126:
“Always exit a dressing room with your left foot
first.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“The
general root of superstition : namely, that men observe when things hit, and
not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the
other.”
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
― Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
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