Pierina legnani biography sample

Pierina Legnani was the very first Prima Ballerina Assoluta and one of the greatest ballerinas ever. She was born on October 1 1868 in Milan. Legnani began dancing at the age of 7 and after a year of private teaching, she was accepted into “La Scala, where she trained for ten years. In her final year, she acted as an understudy to the Prima Ballerina Maria Giuri. After a successful career in Italy, she moved to London where she danced as Prima Ballerina at the Alhambra Theatre in London.

Legnani was invited to Russia to join the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg. She made her Imperial Ballet début in Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti’s version of Cinderella on December 17 1893, in which she amazed the audience with her incredible virtuosa, bravura technique and dramatic/acting abilities.

The highlight of her début was when she introduced the famous 32 fouettés in the final act. According to eyewitnesses, she performed the sequence without stopping and without moving from the spot in which she started. In fact, the audience was so thrilled by the fouettés that they made her repeat the sequence. One misconception of facts, however, is that Legnani is sometimes credited as having been the first ballerina to attempt the fouetté, but this is certainly not the case. Other ballerinas before Legnani had performed fouetté sequences, for example, her fellow Italian Emma Bessone performed a sequence of 14 fouettés in Ivanov’s 1887 ballet The Haarlem Tulip.

Legnani is not taking credit for being the first to perform the 32 fouettés, but rather seems to be indicating that there were other ballerinas who could also do them. What is clear is that Legnani was the first to perform the 32 fouettés on the Russian stage, setting a new record from Bessone’s 14 fouettés. It was not long after her début with the Imperial Ballet that the famous ballet choreographer Marius Petipa fell completely in love with her. After her

This is an excerpt from History of Dance 2nd Edition With Web Resource by Gayle Kassing.

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and t

English-born performer who made Capri her home 

As we’ve written about before, the history of ballet is long and extensive, with many changes in production and style over the centuries. Ever since the classical era of ballet in the 19th century, one figure has loomed large over the world of dance like no other: The ballerina. Here’s a list of some of the greatest ballerinas in history.

Marie Taglioni

Born in Stockholm in 1804 to a dancer mother and an Italian choreographer father, Marie Taglioni was born with ballet in her DNA. At a very young age, she distinguished herself as a student of dance, practicing for hours everyday. She soon blossomed as a court dancer renowned for her perfect form, impressive strength, and a range of motion that set her apart from her peers. 

Considered a top talent in the golden era of the Romantic movement, Taglioni’s career took her to the most distinguished European ballet companies, from the Paris Opera to the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. Often credited as the first person to dance en pointe, Marie Taglioni’s legacy as an early superstar in the time before the age of the prima donna ballerina is undeniable.

Fanny Ellsler

Another star of the Romantic era is the Austrian ballerina Fanny Elssler. Elssler came from a musically connected family; her father and uncle were employed as servants and copyists of the great court composer Joseph Haydn. Ellsler showed such an early skill for dancing that she was considered by many to be a child prodigy. After training and performing in many royal courts from Naples to Berlin, Elssler landed a spot in the Paris Opera Ballet in 1834 that put her in competition with the superstar Marie Taglioni.

A less virtuosically impressive dancer than Taglioni, the younger Essler nonetheless set herself apart from the older ballerina by an attention to precision in her footwork and a fawning cult of personality paid to her by the French audience because of her great beauty. Her career took her all over Europe and across the Atlantic