Katti Lanner

Who was Katti Lanner?

Katti Lanner was a Viennese ballet dancer and choreographer.

Lanner was born in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Joseph Lanner, the director of ballet music at the Court in Vienna. She studied at the Vienna Court Opera, becoming a pupil of Isidore Carey. She left Vienna in 1856 and worked in several German ballet companies, marrying Johann Alfred Geraldini, the director of the Viennese Ballet Company.

With this company, she toured Europe, Russia and the USA. She first played at Drury Lane, London in 1871, returning in 1875 where she took over the National Training School of Dancing, producing many ballets, pantomimes and trained a number of protégées for the stage.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, she choreographed numerous works for the Empire Theatre's ballet company, working with composer-director Leopold Wenzel. This did much to revive the moribund art of ballet in Britain, which had declined in the 19th century.

She died at Clapham in 1908 and was buried with fellow dancer Giuseppe Venuto de Francesco at West Norwood Cemetery.