Marie Taglioni

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Taglioni, Marie (b Stockholm, 23 Apr. 1804, d Marseilles, 22 Apr. 1884). Swedish-Italian dancer. One of the greatest names in the history of ballet and the most famous dancer of the Romantic era, she was the first Sylphide. Daughter of Filippo T. and sister of Paul T. She studied with her father in Vienna and Cassel and with Coulon in Paris. She made her debut on 10 June 1822 at the Hoftheater in Vienna, dancing in her father's divertissement La Réception d'une jeune nymphe à la cour de Terpsichore. After performing in Munich and Stuttgart, where she created the title role in her father's Danina (1826), she made her Paris debut in 1827 dancing a variation inserted into the ballet Le Sicilien. She was a star of the Paris Opera for the next ten years, adored by the public and so famous that they named cakes after her. In London she counted among her fans the young princess who would become Queen Victoria. The product of her father's aesthetic ideals, she became the most ethereal dancer of the Romantic era, the embodiment of elusive spirituality and supernatural grace. It was she who transformed dancing on pointe from a mere technical trick into a sublime expression of poetic dance. She was also a character dancer of the highest order, and won great acclaim, for instance, for her gypsy dancing as the title character in La Gitana. She caused a sensation wherever she went. Among her greatest creations in Paris were leading roles in Aumer's La Belle au bois dormant (1829) and in her father's La Sylphide (1832), Nathalie; ou, La Laitière suisse (1832), La Révolte au sérail (1833), Brézilia (1835), and La Fille du Danube (1836), along with dancing roles in the operas Le Dieu et la bayadère (1830) and Robert le diable (1831). In 1832 she married Comte Gilbert de Voisins in London, but they separated three years later. She enjoyed a high-profile rivalry with Elssler at the Paris Opera. From 1837 to 1842 she was the toast of St Petersburg, where she was the star ballerina, and she danced to great acclaim all over Europe, including her native Stockholm. In St Petersburg she created roles in her father's Miranda (1838), La Gitana (1838), L'Ombre (1839), L'Écumeur de mer (1840), Aglaë, ou, L'Élève d'amour (1841), and Gerta, Queen of the Elfrides (1842). She created the title role in her father's staging of La Péri at La Scala in Milan (1843), while at Her Majesty's Theatre in London she created roles in Perrot's Pas de quatre and Le Jugement de Pâris (1846). She gave her farewell performance in 1847, retiring to Lake Como, but by 1858 she was back in Paris (forced back to work, said some, by her father's profligate handling of her finances). In 1860 she choreographed her only ballet, Le Papillon (mus. Offenbach), in Paris for her protégé, the tragically short-lived Emma Livry. She was Inspectrice de la Danse at the Paris Opera (1859-70) and initiated the system of examinations at the Opera. In the war of 1870-1 she lost her entire fortune and was forced to make a living by teaching ballroom dancing in London. She died in Marseilles where she had been living with her son since 1880.

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See also: Category:Ballets by Marie Taglioni

Lithograph by Chalon and Lane of Marie Taglioni as Flora in Didelot's Zéphire et Flore. London, 1831 (Victoria and Albert Museum/Sergeyev Collection).

Marie Taglioni (April 23, 1804–April 24, 1884) was a famous Italian/Swedish ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.

Biography

Taglioni was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to the Italian choreographer Filippo Taglioni and the Swedish dancer Sophie Karsten (daughter of the Swedish opera singer Christoffer Christian Karsten and the Polish actress Sophie Stebnowska). Marie rose to fame as a danceuse when her father (and teacher) created the ballet La Sylphide (1832) for her. Designed as a showcase for Marie's talent, it was the first ballet where dancing en pointe had an aesthetic rationale and was not merely an acrobatic stunt, often involving ungraceful arm movements and exertions, as had been the approach of dancers in the late 1820s.

Marie Taglioni was one of the most celebrated ballerinas of the romantic ballet, which was cultivated primarily at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, and at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris.

In 1827 Taglioni left the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre to take up a three-year contract in St. Petersburg with the Imperial Ballet (known today as the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet). It was in Russia after her last performance in the country (1842) and at the height of the "cult of the ballerina" that a pair of her pointe shoes were sold for two hundred rubles, reportedly to be cooked, served with a sauce and eaten by a group of balletomanes.

Marie was also know for shortening her skirt in the performance La Sylphide, which was considered highly scandalous at the time. Marie shortened all of her skirts to show off her excellent point work, which the long skirts hid. Her father was approving of the shortening of the skirt because he also wanted everyone to see how good his daughter was en pointe.

Marie retired from performing in 1847; for a time she took up residence at the Ca d'Oro on the Grand Canal in Venice. When the ballet of the Paris Opera was reorganized on stricter, more professional lines, she was its guiding spirit. With the director of the new Conservatoire de danse, Lucien Petipa and Petipa's former pupil the choreographer Louis Mérante she figured on the six-member select jury of the first annual competition for the Corps de ballet, held April 13, 1860.

Later she taught social dance to children and society ladies; she also took a limited number of ballet pupils. Her only choreographic work was Le Papillon (1860) for her student Emma Livry, who is remembered for dying in 1863 when her costume was set alight by a gas lamp (limelight) used for stage lighting. Marie lived much longer, dying in Marseilles in 1884. Johann Strauss II composed the Marie Taglioni Polka (Op. 173) in her honour using music from ballets in which she had appeared.

She also danced in Pas de Quatre with Carlotta Grisi, Lucille Grahn, and Fanny Cerrito in July 1854.

External links

• Marie Taglioni, the Italian Ballerina

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