In the first half of the nineteenth century, the ideals of Romanticism sparked dramatic innovations in dance movement and costume. Ballet, once an art seen principally in court performances, won new audiences among the growing middle classes and became a popular art form. The soaring movements and gestures, the technical virtuosity and dancing "on point," as well as the long tarlatan tutu, flesh-colored tights, and the heelless dance slipper that we know today originated in the Romantic period.
The art of ballet flourished because of the dazzling expertise, style, and personalities of the great dancers who dominated the period. This enthralling book depicts eight of the most celebrated of those dancers as beautifully costumed paper dolls, each with three additional costumes from their most famous roles. Here are the influential Marie Taglioni as La Fille du Danube; Carlotta Grisi as Giselle, which would become the prototypical Romantic ballet; Fanny Elssler, the first world-class ballerina ever to appear triumphal in America, in La Gypsy; Fanny Cerrito as La Esmeralda; Lucile Grahn, a star of the Royal Danish Ballet, as La Sylphide; the legendary Lola Montez as a Spanish dancer; Jules Joseph Perrot, a major choreographer and the greatest male dancer of the Romantic era, in Giselle; and Augusta Maywood, the first American ballerina to have an international career, as The Maid of Cashmere.
To add to dance lovers' enjoyment of this exciting collection, artist Tom Tierney has included a fascinating introduction to the Romantic ballet and its stars, brief biographies of each of the dancers, and captions for each drawing.