Buttons (pantomime) Buttons (pantomime) Buttons is the name of a character in the "Cinderella" pantomime, a male servant of the household who helps Cinderella and loves her, and who is liked and trusted but not loved by her. The character has sometimes been called Pedro. Buttons does not appear in the Disney films. The character first appeared in 1860 at the Strand Theatre, London in a version of the story derived from the opera La Cenerentola by Rossini. Rossini includes a character Dandini as assistant to the Prince, which was also included, and a complementary character for Cinderella, called Buttoni was added
Pantomime "παντόμιμος" ("pantomimos"), consisting of "παντο-" ("panto-") meaning "all", and "μῖμος" ("mimos"), meaning a dancer who acted all the roles or all the story. The Roman pantomime drew upon the Greek tragedy and other Greek genres from its inception, although the art was instituted in Rome and little is known of it in pre-Roman Greece. The English word came to be applied to the performance itself. According to a lost oration by Aelius Aristides, the pantomime was known for its erotic content and the effeminacy of its dancing; Aristides's work was responded to by Libanius, in his oration "On Behalf of