Biography

Considered the greatest ballet choreographer of the 19th century, and one of the greatest of all time. He choreographed the original productions of many ballets written by some of the world's greatest composers.

Petipa and Tchaikovsky seem to have met for the first time in Saint Petersburg in November 1886, in connection with a projected ballet on the subject of Undina, which was never realised . However, in subsequent years they worked closely together on the ballets The Sleeping Beauty (1888-89) and The Nutcracker (1891-92).

After engagements in Bordeaux, the United States and Madrid, Petipa was invited to become principal dancer at the Imperial Theatres in Saint Petersburg.

Many pieces have survived in an independent form from Petipa's original works and revivals in spite of the fact that the full-length ballets that spawned them had disappeared from the Imperial Ballet's repertoire. Many of these pieces have endured in versions either based on the original or choreographed anew by others - the Grand Pas classique, Pas de trois and Mazurka des enfants from Paquita; Le Carnaval de Venise Pas de deux from Satanella; The Talisman Pas de deux; La Esmeralda Pas de deux; the Diana and Actéon Pas de deux; La Halte de Cavalerie Pas de deux; the Don Quixote Pas de deux; La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de deux; and the Harlequinade Pas de deux.

It was in 1891 that many of Petipa's original ballets, revivals, and dances from operas began to be notated in the method of dance notation created by Vladimir Stepanov.