Famous Ballerina

The majority of general public does not really know that ballet was not the invention of the French or Russian dancers but appeared much earlier. In fact, all ballet specialists conclude, that first ballet originated in Italy in the times of Renaissance.  Naturally, ballet slippers, tutus or complex ballet positions and moves had not been invented yet.

First ballet or “ballo” as it was called in Italy, was the dancing performance designated for special occasions. It was not the entertainment of poor people, of course, it was the privilege of aristocrats. Only the highest nobility could organize ballo for  lavish court pageantry, big weddings, or festivals.

All Renaissance ballet dancers – ballerinas -  dressed according to the fashions of the times.  But the choreography gradually was getting more complex – from simple dances to all kind of adaptations of court dance steps. This probably allowed the evolution of the ballo into more sophisticated type of dance in the end.

Female dancers of those times were not supposed to show their legs or even ankles to the public. All  ballet dancers used masks without showing their faces to the public. Their artistic expression was supposed to agitate and excite the audience to such degree that it would join the participants in the end of their performance.

Ballo got big exposure when future French king  Henry the Second married Catherine Medici who was surrounded by the patrons of the Renaissance art and culture since her birth. New bride replaced old Medieval dances with vivacious and extravagant dances of her native Italy.  Ballo instantly became fashionable, and first famous ballet dancers became recognizable figures at the French court

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.

Gaetan Vestris

If you could ask any Russian ballet fan of the 19th who is his favorite male ballet dancer, there would come up only one name – Paul Gerdt.  He spent fifty six years on the ballet stage and performed in the roles of nearly every lead male character of famous Russian ballets.  For his extraordinary ballet technique and dancing Paul Gerdt  received the mot prestigious title of the Premier Danseur of all three significant theaters in the tsarist Russia: the Imperial Ballet, The Bolshoy Kammeny Theater and Mariinsky Theater.

Gerdt had the unusual longevity for any male ballet dancer: he was born in 1844, started performing very young and retired one year before his death in 1917.  Public loved and worshiped him. In addition, to his brilliant career and titles, audience nicknamed him Blue Cavalier.  Admiring public also awarded him with another title: the Prince of Saint Petersburg stage.  This was true enough because Paul Gerdt was the first to dance Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty, and Prince Coqueluche in The Nutcracker.

His mentors and teachers that helped him start his amazing career of a dancer were also the best that Russian ballet could offer.  Gerdt’s first teacher was Alexander Pimenov who himself was a student of the Father of Russian ballet – Charles Didelot.  His next teacher was Jean Petipa, famous ballet dancer, father of probably the second person of importance after Didelot for Russian ballet – Marius Petipa. Old Jean in his youth underwent extensive training by the giant of the French ballet Auguste Vestris.

Paul Gerdt was quite an eccentric, nobody at the theater knew how old he was.  When asked, he would give one and the same response, claiming that he was 23 years old. He excelled not only in dancing but in teaching as well.  He left after himself the whole brilliant team of students among which there were Anna Pavlova, George Balanchine, Michel Fokin, Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky. It is interesting to note that Michel Fokin trained Gerdt’s daughter – great ballerina Elizaveta Gerdt. And Vaslav Nijinsky was Elizaveta’s partner in ballet dancing.

Paul Gerdt in 1890

Avdotia Istomina was one of the most famous ballerinas of the Russian ballet in the 19th century. Having said that, I must add that her origin and place of birth remain unknown. My intense web analytics search did not reveal any of her ancestors. Supposedly, she was born in 1799. She was brought to the ballet school by a flutist in an Army orchestra when she was just six years old.  She was the best student of the First ballet master Charles Didelot who managed to pass to her the best techniques, artistic methods and progressive ballet moves and positions.

She debuted in the Russian Imperial Ballet when she was only sixteen.  Charles Didelot was very proud of her. None of his other female dancers appeared on stage as often as Istomina, nor danced as many roles as she did.  For a long time Istomina, as a a prima ballerina had no equal in the Russian and, possibly, European ballet.

All young noble Russian aristocrats  and courtiers were in love with Istomina.  Famous writer Alexander Pushkin dedicated her beautiful lines in Eugene Onegin.  Noblemen were competing for her heart.  These dangerous competitions led to dueling during which several of them were killed.  Among those who died for her was influential young Count Sheremetev. Even Russian famous playwright and diplomat Alexander Griboedov was shot through the palm during one of those dangerous competitions.

The contemporaries describe her as a medium built, well-shaped brunette.  She had black, fiery eyes veiled by long eye-lashes,  great strength in her feet, aplomb on the stage, and together with that, grace. Lightness and speed in movements; her pirouettes and her elevation were astounding.

She was on the peak of her fame when suddenly famous Didelot left the theare after a conflict with theater administration in 1829.  It all went down the hill after Father of Russian ballet left.  Many romantic leading roles were taken away from Istomina and she played older characters on stage as the years rolled by. Her salary was lowered twice and in the end she requested her retirement from ballet and it was officially given to her by the emperor Nicholai I. Her days ended in relative obscurity in 1848.

Russian Ballerina Avdotia Istomina

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.

Charles Didelot