Pavel Gerdt

Who was Pavel Gerdt?

Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt, was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in 1860, and retiring in 1916. His daughter Elisaveta Gerdt was also a prominent ballerina and teacher.

Gerdt studied under Christian Johansson, Alexander Pimenov, and with Jean-Antoine Petipa. He was known as the "Blue Cavalier" of the St. Petersburg stage, creating the roles of nearly every lead male character throughout the latter half of the 19th century, among them Prince Désiré in Sleeping Beauty and Prince Coqueluche in The Nutcracker. Nobody in the theatre knew his real age, and when asked, he would always say that he was 23.

Among his pupils at the Imperial Ballet School were Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, George Balanchine, and Anna Pavlova, to whom he taught the soaring leap of Marie Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi.