Dancer

[Gaspare, Gaspero] [Gasparini, Domenico Maria Angiolo]

(b Florence, Feb 9, 1731; d Milan, Feb 6, 1803). Italian choreographer, dancer and composer. Along with his rival Jean-Georges Noverre, Angiolini was one of the principal exponents of the new danza parlante, or ballet en action. He began his dance career in Lucca (1747) and also in Venice (1747–8, 1750–51), Turin and Spoleto (1751), Lucca again, this time also working as a choreographer, and Rome (1752–3) before moving to Vienna. There, in 1754 he married his partner, Maria Teresa Fogliazzi (1733–92), notwithstanding the rivalry of Casanova. During Carnival 1756–7 Angiolini produced ballets for the operas given at the Teatro Regio, Turin, also performing as primo ballerino, partnered by his wife. He returned to Vienna as premier danseur at the French theatre, and when the choreographer Franz Hilverding van Wewen departed for Russia in November 1758, the director Giacomo Durazzo named Angiolini as his successor. Gluck succeeded Joseph Starzer as composer of ballet music....

(fl late 18th century). Irish ballet dancer and composer. He is probably the ‘Riccardo Bleck’ described as newly hired who danced at Florence in 1763. He composed a ballet in Parma in 1776 and several for Venice in 1777–8 when librettos refer to him as in the service of the Duke of Parma. He appeared again in Florence both as dancer and composer of ballets in 1779 and 1781–2. Michael Kelly met him in Naples in 1780 and said he ‘had gone abroad very young, and had become a very fine pantomime actor, and was considered the best grotesque dancer of his day’. In Naples he danced Artabanes in a ballet called Artaxerxes and Sancho Panza in one Kelly called The Achievements of Don Quixote. The articles on Kelly in the General Magazine for May and June 1788 mention his friendship with Blake, ‘a famous dancer now in London, and retired from the profession’. Blake published ...

(b Lucca, Feb 5, 1742; d after 1798). Italian librettist, dancer and choreographer. A brother of Luigi Boccherini, he made his début as a dancer in Venice in 1757, but his major successes were achieved in Vienna between 1759 and 1767 (for example, Noverre’s revived Médée et Jason) and from 1769 to 1771. He used this success to begin a career as a librettist; he was a member of the Accademia dell’Arcadia (with the name of Argindo Bolimeo) and published a collection of sonnets. His libretto Turno, re dei Rutoli, a dramma tragico (Vienna, 1767), was never set to music, but reveals a progressive approach to drama; its commendation by Calzabigi, appended to the libretto, led to contact with Salieri, who set to music most of Boccherini’s subsequent librettos. These reveal a talent for pantomime and choreography, and handle theatrical conventions with ease. From 1772 to 1775...

[‘La Camargo’]

Member of Cupis de Camargo family

(b Brussels, bap. April 15, 1710; d Paris, April 28, 1770). Franco-Flemish dancer, eldest daughter of Ferdinand-Joseph Cupis. She learnt dancing at an early age. At the bidding of members of the Belgian court she studied for three months in Paris about 1720 with Françoise Prévost, a famous opera dancer; she was also influenced by the male dancers Pécour, Blondi and Dupré. On her return she became the première danseuse at the opera. After an engagement in Rouen in 1725 she and her family moved to Paris where she made her début at the Opéra on 5 May 1726 in Les caractères de la danse (music by J.-F. Rebel), in which she also sang. Thereafter she danced there regularly, appearing in many important premières including Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) and his other theatrical works (her roles are fully listed in ...

(b mid-18th century; d Paris, 1815). French composer, dancer and teacher. He first acquired fame as a dancer. He danced at least once at the Comédie-Française in 1762 and was ballet-master there by 1764; he was an adjoint at the Opéra in 1774. In 1777 he made his début as a composer at the Concert Spirituel, and during the following ten years his compositions were performed there 25 times – the fourth-largest number of presentations of works by a native composer in that period. He was dismayed by the foreign domination of French musical life and, in response to an unfavourable review of his oratorio Les Macchabées (1780), wrote ‘It is unfortunate for a French musician to have been born in his own country’. He was master of dance at the Ecole Royale de Chant from its establishment in 1784 and made his début as an opera composer the following year with ...

(b Paris, France, c1762; d Washington, DC, April 11, 1841). American dancing master, choreographer, and composer of dance music. He was born into a family named Landrin with close connections to the court of Louis XVI. He was a pupil of Maximilien Gardel (1741–87), and for six years he was dancing master for the Paris Opéra. He left Paris three days after the fall of the Bastille in 1789 and arrived in Philadelphia in mid-1790. He changed his name, placing advertisements for his dancing schools as Mr. De Duport. Chiefly a choreographer and teacher of social dancing, Duport blended amateur and professional dancing with theatrical standards of content and performance. He wrote music and created hornpipes and other solo dances for his students, as well as duos such as figured minuets, allemandes, and waltzes; group dances, including complex French contredanses, cotillions, and English country dances; and ballets for his classes to perform at recitals. A music copybook in Duport’s hand traces his creative career from ...

[John]

(b Florence, Jan 7, 1728; d London, Jan 5, 1805). Italian dancer, choreographer and impresario. He moved to Paris and, according to Antoine de Léris (Dictionnaire portatif des théâtres, 1754), was a member of the Académie Royale de Musique company until at least 1754. His first recorded appearance in London was at Covent Garden on 17 December 1757, when he danced in the ballets The Judgement of Paris and The Sicilian Peasants. In autumn 1758 he joined the corps de ballet at the King's Theatre, dancing in operas by Cocchi and Perez, and was named director of dances for Cocchi's Ciro riconosciuto (3 February 1759). He continued as dance director as well as a performer through the 1762–3 season, providing ballets for J.C. Bach's first London opera, Orione (19 February 1763). During 1763–4 he returned to Covent Garden as director of dances and was re-engaged in ...

French family of dancers and ballet-masters.

Gardel, Claude (d Paris, 1774)

Gardel, Maximilien Léopold Philippe Joseph (b Mannheim, Dec 18, 1741; d Paris, March 11, 1787)

Gardel, Pierre Gabriel (b Nancy, Feb 4, 1758; d Paris, Oct 18, 1840)

Member of Gardel family

(d Paris, 1774). French dancer. In 1741 he became ballet-master in Mannheim, where he was partly responsible for the choreography in Meride which opened the opera house on 17 January 1742. He later held appointments in Stuttgart, Metz (where he married the actress Jeanne Darthenay) and from ...

Member of Gardel family

(b Mannheim, Dec 18, 1741; d Paris, March 11, 1787). French dancer and ballet-master, son of Claude Gardel. He entered the Paris Opéra about 1755, and soon became a leading dancer along with such celebrities as Gaetano Vestris. Vestris, for unknown reasons, did not appear in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux on 21 January 1772, and Gardel was called on to take his place. He agreed to do so only if allowed to dance without a mask and with his own blonde hair instead of Vestris’s customary black wig. His appearance caused a sensation and in time led to the abolition of masks and wigs for male dancers.

In 1773 Gardel and his colleague Jean Bercher, called Dauberval, were appointed assistant ballet-masters to Vestris. On Vestris’s retirement in 1776 the two assistants expected to take his place, as was the usual practice at the Opéra; but Marie Antoinette had Noverre, formerly her dance teacher in Vienna, nominated to this position. Gardel and Dauberval started a campaign against Noverre, and by ...

Member of Gardel family

(b Nancy, Feb 4, 1758; d Paris, Oct 18, 1840). French dancer, son of Claude Gardel. In 1771 he entered the Opéra, where his elder brother was largely responsible for his training. He quickly became one of the best pupils of the Ecole de Danse, and soon after his début in 1774 reached the ranks of the leading dancers. In 1783 he became his brother’s assistant. In 1786 the brothers produced the ballet Les sauvages, for which they also wrote the music. On his brother’s death in 1787 Pierre was appointed ballet-master, a post he held for over 40 years with many successes both as dancer and as choreographer. Two of his best-known ballets were produced in 1790, Télémaque anns l’île de Calypso and Psyché; the latter remained in the repertory until 1829, reaching over 1150 performances. During the Revolution Gardel choreographed Le jugement de Paris...

(b Naples, c1760; d Naples, March 30, 1826). Italian dancer and choreographer. By 1775 he was a principal dancer at the Teatro Regio, Turin. He appeared there regularly up to 1778 and in 1784–9, but also danced in Florence (1776, 1779–80), Lucca (1779), Rome (1781, 1787) and Naples (1783, 1785). He made his choreographic début at Turin in 1789, then worked in Venice and at La Scala, Milan. He was subsequently principal choreographer and dancer at the major theatres of Naples (1793, 1795–6), Milan (1793–4), Florence (1798–9), Turin (1799) and Genoa (1800). A period in Vienna from 1800 exposed him to important new stimuli, notably the instrumental music of resident composers, the new lighting techniques and stage effects of the Zauberopern and acquaintance with the younger choreographer Salvatore Viganò. Gioia returned to Italy in ...

(fl. 1784–1800). American dancing master and choreographer. Griffiths was the earliest-known choreographer to publish his work in the United States. He issued a collection of country dances and cotillions (Providence, 1788), and an expanded collection with instructions for polite deportment (Northampton, 1794). The whole or partial contents of these books were reprinted by several rural New England and New York publishers over the next 15 years. A broadside of the deportment rules was printed separately. Griffiths based his activities in New York (1784–7, 1796–9?) and Boston (1788–94), and taught in smaller towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and upstate New York. In 1800 he moved to Charleston, South Carolina, perhaps via Philadelphia. Through his publications and itinerant teaching, Griffiths strongly influenced the repertory of social dancing and behavior in New York and New England ballrooms in the early Federal period. Some of his choreographies, notably “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” are still danced today. Griffiths may have composed several tunes for use in his classes, such as “Griffiths Whim,” “Griffiths Fancy,” and “Duo Minuet.” And he may have been related to one of the Griffiths families active on the English stage during the second half of the 18th century....

(b Paris, bap. Dec 27, 1743; d Paris, May 4, 1816). French dancer. In 1758 or 1759, at about the age of 16, she joined the corps de ballet at the Comédie Française. In 1762 she was hired as a dancer and understudy to Mlle Allard at the Opéra, making a successful début in Les caractères de la danse. On 9 May 1762, standing in for an injured Mlle Allard, she took the principal role of Terpsichore in the prologue of Fuzelier's ballet Les fêtes grecques et romaines. By 1763 she was première danseuse noble at the Opéra and quickly became one of the favourite dancers of the time. The choreographer Noverre observed that she ‘danced tastefully and put expression and feeling into all her movements’, while Baron Grimm found her simplicity ‘artless without being foolish’. Her dancing continued to elicit praise, despite her relatively advanced age of 46, when she performed at the King's Theatre, London, in ...

(b Lyons, Sept 1732; d Berlin, Jan 5, 1820). French dancer, choreographer and teacher. He was an influential figure in the history of the ballet en action. A pupil of his father, Laurentius (1713–83), an actor and dancer at the Mannheim Hoftheater, he probably studied in Paris, and then worked as a dancing master and ballet dancer at the Mannheim court (1756–64). In about 1763 he began his career as a choreographer at the court of Hessen-Kassel, creating more than 50 ballets. A printed collection of these ballets (Recueil des Ballets de Cassel, Kassel, 1768, GB-LbI) suggests that he was familiar with the theories and practical works of Noverre. The music for most of these ballets was composed by his former Mannheim colleagues Christian Cannabich, C.J. Toeschi and Ignaz Fränzl as well as by Noverre’s collaborators at Stuttgart, F.J. Deller and Rudolph. Lauchery wrote his own music for at least two of his ballets and, as in a letter by Leopold Mozart (...

[Carlo]

(b Naples, 1744; d St Petersburg, 1806). French choreographer and dancer. As a youth he was influenced by the Noverrian form of ballet en action. His initial contract as figurant at Stuttgart from February 1760, shortly before Noverre’s arrival, was extended in 1761 for six more years, with the additional clause that he be given special instruction by Noverre in ‘Serieux-Tanzen’. By 1766 he was a leading dancer. After Noverre’s departure in 1767 Le Picq transferred to Vienna, where in 1765 he had already come into contact with Hilverding, an early exponent of dramatic dance. He may also have appeared in Warsaw. When Noverre took over at Vienna in late 1767 Le Picq became principal dancer. In 1769 he moved to Italy and, apart from two short visits to Paris to dance under Noverre (1776, 1778), remained until early 1782. He choreographed his first work, a Noverre revival, at Padua in ...

[l’aîné]

Member of Leclair family

(b Lyons, May 10, 1697; d Paris, Oct 22, 1764). French composer, violinist, and dancer. He is considered the founder of the French violin school.

Before his 19th year, Leclair mastered violin playing, dancing, and lacemaking. He was then listed among the dancers at the Lyons opera, together with Marie-Rose Casthagnié whom he married on November 9, 1716. He may also have been active as a dancer and violinist in Rouen, where according to Gerber his patron was Mme Mezangère (La Laurencie however doubted the Rouen connection).

Leclair was in Turin in 1722, where he may have been drawn by employment at royal wedding festivities; he was evidently active there as a ballet-master, though he did not hold an official position. Possibly he received violin lessons from G.B. Somis.

Going to Paris in 1723, Leclair came under the patronage of one of the richest men in France, Joseph Bonnier, while he prepared his op.1 for publication. These sonatas were recognized for their originality and, according to one contemporary, they ‘appeared at first a kind of algebra capable of rebuffing the most courageous musicians’. Another wrote: ‘Le Clair est le premier qui sans imiter rien, Créa du beau, du neuf, qu’il peut dire le sien’ (‘Le Clair is the first person who, without imitating anything, created beautiful and new things, which he could call his own’)....

(b Naples, fl 1755–79). Italian dancer in the grotesque style, choreographer and teacher. He is important mainly for his Trattato teorico-prattico di ballo (Naples, 1779; Eng. trans., 1988). This rare work is the only one so far discovered that connects the development of the formalized theatrical dance techniques of the late 18th century with the pre-Romantic movement of the early 19th. Considerable space is given to the use of music for dancing, attention being drawn to the rules that govern both arts and to the essential concordance of dance with its music. There is emphasis on the necessity of the dancer’s knowing music and on the ill consequences of ignorance of this subject. Importance is given to the choice of dance music suitable to the type of theatre, and to the plight of the musician who does not give due thought to this problem. Technical steps, the minuet and 39 contredanses, with music and diagrams, are fully described....

(d Kensington, London, bur. Aug 28, 1784). English soprano, actress and dancer. The daughter of a Jewish merchant (or tavern keeper) she made her début as Polly in The Beggar’s Opera at the newly opened Covent Garden Theatre in December 1732, with a run of 20 nights in succession. She played Deidamia in Gay’s posthumous ...

[Mrs Vernon, Mrs Thompson]

(b London, June 8, 1736; d after 1788). English soprano and dancer. As a child she appeared as a dancer and at the age of 14 she sang a minor role in the opera La Forza d’amore by Pietro Domenico Paradies with an Italian opera company at the Haymarket Theatre. Three years later, in May 1754, she sang the Genius of England in Thomas Arne's Eliza. She generally played spirited second-woman roles, singing Lucy in The Beggar’s Opera almost every season and creating the parts of Dorcas in Arne’s Thomas and Sally (1760) and Fanny the gypsy in The Maid of the Mill (1765). In 1762 her immodest costume while dancing shocked the party in the royal box and in Thespis she was called ‘the liveliest baggage on the modern stage’. Her Savoy Chapel marriage to the tenor Vernon in 1755 was declared invalid; she sang again as Miss Poitier from ...