This painting is a brilliant impression of a moment; it is handled with a freedom that could only be called “impressionistic; and yet it is not strictly an Impressionist painting. Although he associated with the Impressionists and exhibited in all but one of their eight shows,3„4Degas3„4always remained something of a stubborn traditionalist. He did not follow him in their loose drawing and atmospheric colouring and more than once he expressed a frank distaste for “out –of – door” landscape painting, so central to the art of Monet, Sisley, Renoir and Pissarro. If the term Impressionism can include psychological elements, however, then no one surpassed3„4Degas3„4in the ability to render momentary impressions of candid human gestures and movements. Here under a dazzle of lights, he rapidly sets down in flowing brush strikes one of those vivid entertainment spectacles that so intrigued him.