Marius Petipa

Petipa in 1898

Marius Petipa (1818-1910) was a French dancer and the principal Ballet Master for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg from 1869 until 1903. His works include La Bayadere (1877), a revised Giselle (1884), The Sleeping Beauty (1890), a revised Swan Lake (1895), and Raymonda (1898). Dance historian Lynn Garafola believes Petipa "had an incalculable effect on Russian ballet." She points out that he supervised the transition from Romanticism to Classicism in Russian ballet, and fused the Italian bravura and French lyrical techniques. Garafola writes, "[Petipa] helped transform an art dominated by foreigners and identified with the West into a Russian national expression."

Marius Petipa Media

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  Portrait of Marius Petipa at about fifteen years of age, c. 1833

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  Portrait of Marius Petipa around the time of his arrival in Russia. St. Petersburg, c. 1855.

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  The stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with cast in act I of Petipa's final revival of The Pharaoh's Daughter, St. Petersburg, 1898. In the center is Mathilde Kschessinskaya as the Princess Aspicia (right), and Anna Johannson as the slave Ramzé (left).

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  The stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with the cast of act I/scene 1 of the original production of Petipa's Raymonda, St. Petersburg, 1898. In the center is Pierina Legnani, creator of the title role. On the right of the stage is (right to left) Claudia Kulichevskaya as Clémence, Olga Preobrajenska Henriette, Pavel Gerdt as Abderakhman and Nikolai Legat as Béranger.

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  The stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with the cast of act I of Petipa's final revival of Jules Perrot's La Esmeralda, St. Petersburg, 1899. In the center is Mathilde Kschessinskaya in the title role

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  The stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with the cast of the scene The Kingdom of the Shades from Petipa's final revival of La Bayadère, St. Petersburg, 1900. In the center is Mathilde Kschessinskaya as Nikiya and Pavel Gerdt as Solor. Also shown are the three soloist shades (kneeling left of center, from left to right) Varvara Rhykliakova, Anna Pavlova, and Julia Sedova.

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  The stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with the cast of act III of Lev Ivanov's revival of Petipa's La Camargo. In the center is Pierina Legnani in the title role and Nikolai Legat as Vestris. St. Petersburg, 1901

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  Caricature of Marius Petipa by the brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat from their celebrated book "The Russian Ballet in Caricatures". Petipa is shown holding a banner that reads Петербургскій Балетъ, meaning St. Petersburg Ballet.

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  Funeral cortège for Marius Petipa, 17 July 1910, St. Petersburg, Russia