1. Personalities of the Classical Era in Ballet: Petipa

2. Marius Petipa Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler

3. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets, among them some of what we now consider the classics of ballet: Don Quixote (1869) La Bayadère (1877) The Sleeping Beauty (1890) Swan Lake (1895)

4. Marius Petipa cont. One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. His ballets were spectacles with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa’s standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century.