Marius Petipa (1818-1910), the “father of classical ballet,” was born in Marseilles, France. He began dance training at the age of 7 with his father Jean Petipa, a French dancer and teacher. Marius was educated at the Grand College in Brussels and also attended the conservatoire to study music. In 1831 he made his debut in his father’s production of Gardel’s La Dansomanie.

 

Jean Petipa became the Maitre de Ballet at the theatre in Bordeaux, where Marius completed his education. At sixteen he became premier danseur at the theatre in Nantes, where he also produced several short ballets. He toured North America with his father, then spent a few years dancing in Spain and Paris, and in 1847 he left for Russia.

 

As a principal dancer at the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, Petipa was much acclaimed for his performances in such ballets as Paquita (which he restaged), Giselle, and Faust. Considered an excellent dancer and partner, his acting, stage manners, and pantomime were held up as examples for many generations of dancers.

 

In 1854 he became an instructor in the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, while continuing to dance and to restage French ballets. His first great success was The Daughter of Pharaoh, which resulted in his appointment as Choreographer-in-Chief in 1862—a position he held for nearly fifty years.

 

In 1869 Petipa became Premier Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatre. There he produced more than sixty full-evening ballets and countless shorter works. The ballet repertoire in the Soviet Union is still based mainly on his works.

 

Toward the end of his career, Petipa’s classicism was considered old-fashioned, and in 1903, at age 84, Petipa was forced to retire from the Imperial Theatre after the failure of his ballet The Magic Mirror.

 

Today, Marius Petipa is considered one of the greatest choreographers of all time. He elevated the Russian ballet to international fame and laid the cornerstone for twentieth-century ballet.

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Alexander Gorsky, (1871–1924), considered in Russia today a pioneer of dramatically-oriented ballet realism, is best known for restaging Marius Petipa’s classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and The Nutcracker. His interpretations of ballets were often controversial and he often used artists outside the dance world to create sets and costumes.
 

He was born in 1871 outside of St. Petersburg, Russia. When he turned eight he was accepted to the School of Commerce in St. Petersburg, where is parents hoped he would go. Instead, he became a student at St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet School.
 

Gorsky joined the ballet company and became a soloist dancer. In 1900 he was nominated to be principal male soloist of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, but was moved to the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre as manager eight days later. Gorsky was late named Premier Maître de Ballet of the Theatre. In addition to teaching, Alexander Gorsky choreographed, restaged, and revived many ballets. He created many of his own ballets but it is his restaging of Marius Petipa’s works that have become more well known.

 

By the end of 1904, Gorsky was teaching regularly in the school; his teaching was designed to develop individual creativity, and he is credited with substituting the piano for the traditional violin as class accompaniment. He served in several administrative organizations associated with the ballet and worked to improve the quality of ballet training. He was well- educated and proficient in painting, writing, acting, and music.

Gorsky revived the Petipa/Ivanov version of La fille mal gardée for the first time in 1903, the Petipa/Ivanov revival of Swan Lake in 1901, Petipa's Don Quixote in 1900, La Bayadére in 1904, and Raymonda in 1905. His legacy also includes revisions to The Nutcracker and to Petipa's revival of Arthur Saint-Léon's The Little Humpbacked

Horse in 1901.