Marius Petipa

Who was Marius Petipa?

Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet.

Marius Petipa is noted for his long career as premier maître de ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position he held from 1871 until 1903. Petipa created over fifty ballets, some of which have survived in versions either faithful to, inspired by, or reconstructed from the original — The Pharaoh's Daughter; Don Quixote; La Bayadère; Le Talisman; The Sleeping Beauty; The Nutcracker; Le Réveil de Flore; La Halte de cavalerie; Raymonda; Les Saisons, and Les Millions d’Arlequin.

Petipa revived a substantial number of works created by other Ballet Masters. Many of these revivals would go on to become the definitive editions from which all subsequent productions would be based. The most famous of these revivals are Le Corsaire, Giselle, La Esmeralda, Coppélia, La Fille Mal Gardée, The Little Humpbacked Horse and Swan Lake.