Famous Ballerina

There are so many ways to tie up pointe shoes. I think, you would like a piece of advice that comes from Anaheim Ballet.

Pierina Legnani, 1895

The highest rank that ever existed in ballet is Prima Ballerina Assoluta. It is rarely bestowed on the best of the best ballerinas for their exceptional talents and mastership.  The rank itself was invented by famous French  balletmaster Marius Petipa who headed for many years Russian Imperial Ballet. The idea came to Petipa when he studied the history of the early Romantic Ballet. So, he became the official father of this title when he awarded it to the famous Italian ballerina Pierina Legnani whom he considered a supreme danseuse of all Europe. 
 

Legnani went through extensive training at famous La Scala where she developed her technical expertise. At the time when Petita awarded her with the title,  Pierina was also performing on the stage of St Petersburg Imperial Ballet. She was the first Ballerina in the world to perform outstanding  32 fouettés en tournant during the performance of the ballet Cinderella. 

Although Legnani danced only for 8 years at the Imperial Ballet,  she left deep impression on the contemporaries who witnessed her strength, stamina, and technique. Even today 32 fouettes en tournant is still considered a very difficult step to do.

Famous prima ballerina Olga Preobrajenska was one of the most popular dancers in Russian Imperial Ballet. She earned her title in 1900, right in the beginning of the 20th century. Her performance was famous for its improvisation and creativity, thus Olga was praized and loved by the audience and the critics.

Preobrajenska was lucky to have great teachers right when she was just started her dancing career. She was trained by world class ballet dancers like Maurice Petipa, Nicholas Legat, Christian Johansson and others whose names had already been engraved in the history of the 19th century classical ballet.

Olga was also lucky that she managed to emigrate from Bolshevik Russia in 1921 and bring her talents of a ballet dancer and teacher to the West. For the next two years she taught in Milan, London, Buenos Aires and Berlin and, finally moved to France. In Paris Preobrajenska opened her famous ballet school that was thought to be one of the best in the world.  It existed practically till the death of its owner and closed its doors in 1960.

During the life of the ballet school practically any major ballet dancer of the times visited Preobrajenska to learn her legendary ballet moves.  Among her students were Fonteyn, Baranova, Toumanova and others.  Olga did not live long after her retirement in 1960. She passed away in 1960 when she was 91years old.

Olga Preobrajenska in Raymonda, 1898

In 1729 when a boy was born in the popular theatrical family in Florence. They named him Gaetano Appolino Baldassare Vestris. Nobody in the family could even dream that one day this boy would become the most famous French male ballet dancers of the 18th century.  However, even as a teenager Gaetano Vestris showed so many talents in ballet that he got a chance to study dance at the Royal Academy in Paris.  There he shortened his Italian name to Gaetan Vestris.

His dancing debut took place when he was only some twenty years old at the famous Paris Opera.  Soon Gaetan Vestris became the favorite dancer of the French royal family and went up the career ladder even further.  He was promoted to the title of the king’s dancing master and was teaching his technique to Louis XVI.

Gaetan Vestris entered the history of ballet not only because of his excellent dancing abilities. He was also the first ballet dancer who discarded the mask that traditionally was worn by European dancers.  After he removed the mask he made another historical innovation - Vestris started using his face in mime and succeeded in it as he was not only great dancer but an excellent mimic as well.

In the middle of 18th century nobody could compete with his popularity as well as with his ego.  His contemporaries claimed that not once Gaetan would say that his was one of three greatest men in Europe, comparing himself to the king of Prussia and Voltaire.

Gaetan Vestris was also lucky in marriage. He married German actress Anna Heinel and  who had a brilliant career as a opera singer of European prominence. His children followed his steps. For example, his illegitimate son Auguste Vestris was the leading dancer of French Opera for 36 years.

As the years rolled by he became the First Ballet master and was also composing ballets but, eventually retired in 1776 and died quietly in 1808. Another  great ballet master Jean Georges Noverre took his place and worked on creating famous ballet d’action.

International Dance Day has been celebrated on April 29  for over a quarter of the century. But not many people know that the origin of this holiday. It is the birthday of the famous ballet dancer and Ballet Master Jean-Georges Noverre.  He revolutionized classical dance by creating ballet d’action, which became the predecessor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century. His ideas had lasting impact on ballet ideology, and his theories have been implemented in dance classes today and remain a part today’s ideology of dance.

Born in 1727, Noverre debuted on stage in Fontainebleau when he was only sixteen years old.  He composed his first ballet when he was twenty.  Noverre became so famous that practically all influential European monarchs tried to get him performing at their courts.  Famous Garrick invited him to London where Jean-Georges spent almost two years. He was so wildly popular there that Garrick called him the “Shakespeare of the dance”.

In 1775, in the peak of his fame at the request of the French queen Marie Antoinette Noverre was appointed First Ballet Master of Paris Opera. Jean-Georges kept this post till the days of the French Revolution that ended his career. And not only that.  Revolution reduced this famous genius to misery and poverty. The man of Enlightenment who had so many close friends like Mozart, Voltaire and Frederick the Great, died like a pauper in Paris in 1810.

Yet, his name entered the history and was saved to posterity not because he was a great dancer and Ballet Master.  And it was not because of the numerous ballets that he staged and composed - they have not been reproduced for at least two centuries. It was due to his publishing of the famous treatise Les Lettres sur La Danse et sur Les Ballets.

This treatise has been printed in almost every European language. Due to this work, Noverre’s name is one of the most quoted in the literature of dance. He criticized professional ballet dancers of his time, cumbersome costumes, and old-fashioned musical styles and choreography. He was against the use of the mask in the ballet because it hides facial expression of the ballet dancers.  He encouraged young ballet dancers to profit from their own talents rather than imitate their teachers or the style of a popular dance.

Noverre was the first to state in his treatise that ballet should stir up the audience’s emotions by the use of expressive movement.  He called this type of dance, ballet d’action. His brilliant conclusion was that ballet should unfold through dramatic movement and the movement should express the relationship between the characters.

Jean-Georges Noverre

One of the famous ballet dancers and innovators Jean Dauberval was born in the times of the French Kingdom in the southern city of Montpellier in 1742.  The name given to him at birth was Jean Bercher, which he later changed to Dauberval and a couple of times to D’Auberval.  In his teenage years Jean’s  talents were noticed by the great Jean-Georges Noverre, the creator of the ballet d’action.

Noverre took gifted Dauberval under his wing and trained him at the school of the famous Paris Opéra.   Noverre’s tutelage helped Jean start an astonishing career. At the age of 21 he became a premier danseur of the Académie Royale de Musique. And 8 years later in 1771 he was appointed the Ballet Master.

Soon Jean Dauberval grew up to be an undisputed head of the company who acted as chief choreographer and the artistic director. And from 1781 till 1783 he officially became the First Ballet Master of the Académie or, as they say in French -  Maître de Ballet.

For unknown for us reason this all ended in 1783. Suddenly Jean Dauberval decided to move to Bordeaux and accepted the position of the First Ballet Master at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, that had been inaugurated as theater a couple of years before his arrival.  It was a beautiful building constructed by the famous architect of the Enlightenment Victor Louis who was genius also created galleries of  Palais-Royal in Paris.

Victor Louis envisioned the theater in Bordeaux as a temple of the Arts and Light, with a neo-classical facade endowed with a portico of 12 Corinthian style colossal columns. 12 statues were supported by the columns and they represented the nine muses and three goddesses.

At  Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux Jean Dauberval staged his most famous ballet Le Ballet de la paille. We know it today under the name of La Fille mal gardèe.  Throughout centuries this ballet is one the most enduring and popular works with ballet companies throughout the world.

Dauberval’s ballet had such a wild public success that he traveled to London staged it there.  This is where Dauberval changed the title of the ballet to La Fille mal gardée, which remains the title of the work today.

For the first performance in London in 1791 Dauberval’s wife Mme. Théodore reprised her role as Lise. And Dauberval’s student, Charles Didelot, known to us as the Father of Russian Ballet, danced Colas.

Jean Dauberval lived to see the times of the glittering French Empire of Napoleon and died surrounded by his family and students in 1806.

Jean Dauberval in Sylvie, 1766 (work of unknown artist)

 An experienced French ballet dancer Charles Didelot had a steady position of  an instructor in dance at the Swedish Opera in the 18th century. His son, future famous dancer and choreographer Charles-Louis Didelot was born right here in Stockholm in 1786, and during his adolescence years studied dance with his father.

Young Charles was definitely very gifted and talented dancer, that is why when he was 19 years old he debuted in 1786 in Royal Swedish Ballet theater called Bollhuset.
He did not spend much time there though, because he needed to hone and polish his dancing skills. So he moved to Paris where he studied with Jean Dauberval, the Ballet Master and creator of famous ballet La Fille mal gardée. 

Charles was lucky enough to have as his next teacher Jean-Georges Noverres, who revolutionized dancing with the invention of the ballet d’action. Under the lead of the great master Charles Didelot debuted in London in 1788.

His fame spread all over Europe and that is why the director of the Imperial Theatres in Saint Petersburg invited Charles to work there as the first dancer in 1801. Charles started strong there and was on top of the world for almost five years when the bad luck entered his life.

His beautiful wife Rose was a brilliant ballerina but, unfortunately, she died young in St. Petersburg during the height of her career. And soon after Didelot’s career as a dancer ended too because of the accident.

In spite of all this misfortune Charles did not give up. He switched to teaching French style of ballet dancing and became an influential figure over the development of European and Russian ballet.  In fact, he is considered to be the “Father of the Russian Ballet“. He did this successfully till the end of his life when he died in 1837 in the city of Kiev.