Personalities of the Classical Era in Ballet: Petipa

Marius Petipa

• Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father.

• By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet.

• He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler

• He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there.

• Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets, among them some of what we now consider the classics of ballet:

• Don Quixote (1869)• La Bayadère (1877)• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)• Swan Lake (1895)

Marius Petipa cont.

• One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky on many ballets.

• His ballets were spectacles with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment.

• Petipa’s standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century.