Virtuosity and Spectacle

Carlo Blasis

Dancer, choreographer, teacher, and writer, Carlo Blasis was born in Naples in 1795, but grew up in France, where he studied with Jean Dauberval in Bordeaux and made his Paris Opéra debut in 1817.  In the decade or so that followed he danced in Milan (appearing in ballets by Salvatore Viganò and Gaetano Gioja), in Rome, Livorno, and Florence (partnering Amalia Brugnoli), in London, where he staged a number of works at the King's Theatre, and in Venice, where in 1831 he appeared as "first dancer" at the Teatro La Fenice.  Although Blasis choreographed ballets for La Scala and theaters all over Europe, his works enjoyed only moderate success.  Rather he found his true calling as a ballet theorist and pedagogue.  He published his first treatise, Traîté élémentaire, théorique et pratique de l'art de la danse in Milan in 1820, and The Code of Terpsichore in London in 1830, in addition to a number of later theoretical works on pantomime, music, and the relationship of dance to the other arts.

Drawing on the French and Italian traditions he had absorbed as a youth, Blasis codified ballet technique as this existed on the eve of the Romantic revolution.  He insisted upon the necessity of daily class and laid out the order and progression of exercises, intended to develop strength, grace, endurance, and lightness.  In 1837, with his wife Annunciata Ramaccini, who taught the "class of perfection" in mime, he became the director of la Scala's Imperial Academy of Dancing and Pantomime, and in the next thirteen years transformed it into Europe's foremost training venue.  By the 1840s the success of his "method" was evident in the constellation of stars emerging from his tutelage.  Among them were his seven "Pleiades"--Marietta Baderna, Pasquale Borri, Augusta Dominichettis, Flora Fabbri, Amalia Ferraris, Sofia Fuoco, and Carolina Granzini--and the numerous other dancers who studied with him at La Scala, his private academy in Milan, and at the various theaters in Europe and the Americas where he worked.  Brilliant technicians, they were particularly adept at turns of all kinds and known for their aplomb, "steel" pointes, and speed.  Blasis both theorized and created the pedagogical basis for the scuola italiana, or Italian school.

Technique, however, was only one goal of the Blasis "method."  As the ballerina Claudina Cucchi wrote in her memoirs, he "insisted on his pupils learning and reading for themselves...to acquire the most delicate culture and refinement.  It was not enough for him that they executed the pirouettes and entrechats well.  He wanted every movement to be stamped with that grace and loveliness that only a serious training of the spirit and the intellect can give." 

Carlo Blasis

Engraving after the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, [183-].  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Flora Fabbri as Mazourka in Le Diable à Quatre (The Devil to Pay)

Colored lithograph by John Brandard from a drawing by James Child, London, 1846.  Flora Fabbri was among the first of Blasis's "Pleiades" to acquire international fame.  She made her debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and danced throughout Italy during the late 1830s and 1840s, often partnered by her French husband Louis (or Luigi) Bretin.  In 1845 she became a soloist at the Paris Opéra, appearing in La Sylphide, Paquita, and the divertissements in Verdi's opera Jérusalem and Rossini's Otello, while also dancing at London's Drury Lane Theatre in a version of Joseph Mazilier's Le Diable à Quatre, commemorated in this print.  "Her dancing, all brio and fire," wrote Blasis, "transports and surprises."  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Marietta Baderna

Lithograph from a drawing by Giuliani, [Milan, 1846?].  Marietta Baderna was another of the young stars trained at La Scala by Blasis and launched by him on an international career while in her teens.  In fact, she was only sixteen, when this print, a tribute from her La Scala admirers was made.  A "first dancer," Baderna is depicted surrounded by sixteen figures representing her in both classical and character roles.  In 1847, Blasis took her to London, where she played leading roles in his productions at Drury Lane.  She later accompanied him to South America.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Carolina Rosati in the title role of Coralia

Color lithograph by Emilien Desmaisons after a drawing by Alexandre de Valentini, [London, 1847].  Trained by Carlo Blasis at his private academy in Milan, Carolina Rosati belonged to the first post-Romantic generation of virtuoso ballerinas that took Europe by storm.  She had "toes of steel," speed, and lightness, in addition to being an exceptionally fine actress.  Rosati was the first Medora in Joseph Mazilier's Le Corsaire, producted at the Paris Opéra in 1856, and the first Aspicia in Marius Petipa's The Daughter of Pharaoh, staged in St. Petersburg in 1862.  In this print she is depicted in the final underwater scene of Paul Taglioni's Coralia, which introduced her to London in 1847.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Amalia Ferraris

Lithograph by B. Marcovich, Vicenza, [1853].  Another teenaged prodigy trained by Carlo Blasis at his private academy in Milan, Amalia Ferraris made her debut as prima ballerina di mezzo carattere (or demi-caractère) at La Scala in 1841 at the age of thirteen, dancing in Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide.  In the years that followed she danced all over Italy, while beginning to spread her wings abroad.  From 1856 to 1863 she was the star of the Paris Opéra, leading the casts of Joseph Mazilier's Les Elfes (The Elfs) (1856) Marco Spada, ou la Fille du bandit (Marco Spada, or The Daughter of the Bandit) (1857), Lucien Petipa's Sacountala (1858), and Pasquale Borri's L'Etoile de Messine (The Star of Messina) (1861).  "What is to be said about Mme Ferraris?" asked Théophile Gautier in his review of Sacountala.  "She danced her five pas with lightness, gentleness and an unimaginable suppleness.  Light as a dove's feather when she rises, and firm as an arrow point on landing, she preserves the chaste and voluptuous grace of Sacountala."  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Caterina Beretta as Autumn in I Vespri Siciliani

Lithograph by Destouches, Paris, [1855].  Trained at La Scala but as a student of Auguste Hus, Caterina Beretta was not only one of the most celebrated Italian dancers of her day, but also a highly respected teacher.  She made her debut as a principal dancer at La Scala and the Paris Opéra while still a teen, amazing audiences with her speed, elasticity, precision, and strength.  In 1855, at the age of fifteen, she danced the role of Autumn in the divertissement choreographed by Lucien Petipa in Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Vespri Siciliani, a creation memorialized in this print.  In the years that followed, she appeared regularly at the Teatro Regio in Turin, as well as dancing at La Scala, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and the Teatro Pagliano in Florence.  In Venice in 1859, during a performance of Pasquale Borri's Gabriella la Fioraia (Gabriella the Flower Girl), she pinned red and green flowers on her white costume--the colors of the Italian independence movement--a political gesture that incited a reaction from the Austrian police.  In 1879, after working as a ballet mistress in St. Petersburg, she opened a highly successful school in Milan.  Among her students were Pierina Legnani, Olga Preobrajenska, Anna Pavlova, Vera Trefilova, and Tamara Karsavina.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Claudina Cucchi

Lithograph by Eduard Kaiser, Vienna, [1858].  Encouraged at the age of six to take up dancing by the ballerina Sofia Fuoco, Claudina Cucchi studied at the La Scala school under Carlo Blasis and Auguste Hus, receiving as an allieva emerita--or "distinguished student"--an important role in Giuseppe Rota's Un Fallo (The Fault) at La Scala in 1853.  She was soon snapped up by the Paris Opéra, where she made her debut as Spring in I Vespri Siciliani (1855), and the following year created the role of Gulnare (to Carolina Rosati's Medora and Domenico Segarelli's Conrad) in Le Corsaire (1856).  From 1858 to 1868 Cucchi danced as prima ballerina at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna, appearing in ballets by Pasquale Borri, Giovanni Casati, Paul Taglioni, Giuseppe Rota, and Antonio Pallerini.  She toured throughout Central Europe and Italy; she also danced briefly in Russia, where Marius Petipa revived Esmeralda for her, and in Cairo, before ending her career in Rome in 1874.  Her memoir, Venti anni di palcoscenico (Twenty Years on Stage), was published in Rome in 1904.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Carolina Pochini

Lithograph by Bignoli, Milan, [1855].  Trained by her aunt Carolina Filippini, then by Carlo Blasis at La Scala, Carolina Pochini made her debut in Bergamo during the 1849-1850 season at the age of thirteen.  She danced all over Italy, but except for brief engagements in Vienna and London, confined her career to her native country.  She had a long relationship with La Scala, where she appeared in works by Giuseppe Rota (La Giocoliera [The Woman Juggler]), Gioacchino Coluzzi, Paul Taglioni (Satanella and Electra), and her husband Pasquale Borri, whom she married in 1860.  Of medium stature, with extremely small feet and strong limbs, Pochini had a sunny personality that made her one of the brightest stars of the La Scala firmament.  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Amina Boschetti

Lithograph by Luigi de Crescenzo, [185-?].  Discovered as a child by Marie Taglioni, Amina Boschetti studied with Carlo Blasis and made her debut as prima ballerina assoluta at Milan's Teatro Re at the age of twelve.  A year later she signed a two-year contract with the choreographer and impresario Domenico Ronzani, appearing with his company in Barcelona, Trieste, Florence, and Vienna. She subsequently toured throughout Italy and appeared for several seasons in London.  In 1864 she made her debut at the Paris Opéra in Giuseppe Rota's La Maschera, ou les Nuits de Venise (The Mask, or Venetian Nights), astonishing audiences with her turns on full pointe and her astonishing elevation in jumps.  With her vivid mime and emphasis on tours de force, she was a distinctly Italian dancer, and this, along with her stockiness, did not sit well with French critics.  She returned to Italy, where she remained a huge favorite, dancing until the 1870s.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

La ballerina del Carignano gira con tanta facilità, che qualche ingenuo crede perfino che il suo piede sia guidato da qualche macchina nascosta sotto il palco scenico (The ballerina of the Carignano [Theater] turns with such ease that a simpleton would think that her foot was guided by a machine hidden under the stage)

Clipping from the Milan-based theatrical weekly, Il Trovatore, [ca. 1858].  This caricature, which depicts a man operating a turning apparatus under the stage during a performance, is a comment on Amina Boschetti's remarkable ability to turn.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Giovannina King

Lithograph by Somariva from a drawing by Roberto Focosi, Milan, [1844?].  Giovannina King received her early training from Pietro Hus in Naples, her birthplace, before studying with Carlo Blasis in Milan.  In 1841 she made her debut at La Scala as prima ballerina, appearing in Antonio Cortesi's L'ebrea di Toledo (The Jewish Woman of Toledo).  The following year, billed as "First French Dancer," she appeared in Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide, a testament to the classical style evident in this print.  Unlike many Blasis protegées, King spent most of her career in Italy, dancing with great success in Rome, Milan, and elsewhere.  Cia Fornaroli Collection.  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Publications of Carlo Blasis

Traîté élémentaire, théorique et pratique de l'art de la danse, contenant les développemens, et les démonstrations des principes généraux et particuliers, qui doivent guider le danseur (Elementary theoretical and practical treatise on the art of the dance, containing its development, and demonstrations of the general and particular principles that should guide the dancer).Milan, 1820.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

The Code of Terpsichore.  The art of dancing:  comprising its theory and practice and a history of its rise and progress, from the earliest times:  intended as well for the instruction of amateurs as the use of professional persons.  Trans. R. Barton.London, 1830.  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Lezioni di ballo giusto l'uso delle civili conversazioni (Lessons in dancing correctly [and] the practice of civil conversation).Milan, 1830.

The Young Lady's Book:  A Manual of Elegant Recreations, Exercises, and Pursuits.  2nd ed.London, 1829.  Blasis wrote the chapters on Music and Dancing.  Private collection (New York).

Saggi e prospetto del trattato generale di pantomima naturale e di pantomima teatrale fondato sui principi della fisica e della geometria e dedotto dagli elementi del disegno e del bello ideale (An essay and prospectus for a general treatise on natural and theatrical pantomime founded on the principles of physics and geometry and deduced from the elements of design and ideal beauty).Milan, 1841.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Delle composizioni coreografiche e delle opere letterarie di Carlo Blasis.  Coll'aggiunta delle testimonianze di varii scrittori e di una dissertazione inedita sovra le passioni ed il genio (On the choreographic compositions and literary works of Carlo Blasis, with testimonies by diverse authors and an unpublished dissertation on the passions and genius).Milan, 1854.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.