Fanny Elssler

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Fanny Elssler

Fanny Elssler as Florinda in the dance La Cachucha from the 1836 Coralli/Gide ballet Le diable boiteux. Paris, 1836

Fanny Elssler (German: Fanny Elßler; 23 June 1810, Gumpendorf bei Vienna - 27 November 1884), born Franziska Elßler, was an Austrian ballerina.

Life

Daughter of Johann Florian Elssler, a second generation employee of Prince Esterhazy in Eisenstadt. Both Johann and his brother Josef were employed as copyists to the Prince's Kapellmeister, Joseph Haydn. Johann was to eventually become valet to Haydn and attended Haydn up to and was present at Haydn's death.

From her earliest years she was trained for the ballet, and made her appearance at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna before she was 7. She almost invariably danced with her sister Theresa, who was 2 years her senior; the sisters studied dancing with Jean-Pierre Aumer and Freiedrich Horschelt beginning when Fanny was 9 years old, also traveling to Naples to study with the great Gaetano Gioja. After some years experience together in Vienna, the 2 went in 1827 to Naples.

Their success thereto, which Fanny contributed more largely than her sister, led to an engagement in Berlin in 1830. This was the beginning of a series of triumphs for Fanny's personal beauty and skill in dancing. After captivating all hearts in Berlin and Vienna, and inspiring the aged statesman Friedrich von Gentz with a remarkable passion, she paid a visit to London, where she received much kindness at the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Grote, who practically adopted the little girl who was born three months after the mother's arrival in England.

In September 1834 Elssler appeared with the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (today known as the Paris Opera Ballet), a step to which she looked forward with much misgiving on account of Marie Taglioni's supremacy on that stage. The result, however, was another triumph for her, and the temporary eclipse of Taglioni, who, although the finer artist of the two, could not for the moment compete with the newcomer's personal fascination. This earned Elssler a place among the most talented and notable ballerinas of the Romantic ballet period.

It was conspicuously in her performance of the Spanish La Cachucha that Elssler outshone all rivals. In 1840 she sailed with her sister for New York, and after two years unmixed success they returned to Europe. While in New York City, Fanny dined with and was escorted by John Van Buren, son of the President of the United States, Martin Van Buren. During the following five years Fanny appeared in Germany, Austria, France, England and Russia. In 1845, she refused to perform along with her rivals Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito and Lucile Grahn in Jules Perrot's Pas de Quatre in London. In the same year, having amassed a fortune, she retired from the stage and settled near Hamburg. A few years later her sister Theresa contracted a morganatic marriage with Prince Adalbert of Prussia, and was ennobled under the title of Baroness von Barnim. Fanny Elssler died in Vienna on 27 November 1884. Theresa was left a widow in 1873, and died on 19 November 1878.

Video

• Yulia Makahlina dancing Fanny Elssler's Cachucha at the Mariinsky Theatre

References

• Ivor Forbes Guest, Fanny Elssler (Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 1970)
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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