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Petipa, Marius 1818-1910
French dancer, ballet-master and choreographer

He was born in Marseilles. After touring France, Spain and the USA as a dancer, he went to St Petersburg in 1847 to join the Imperial Theatre where his father Jean had been a teacher. In 1858 he became the company's second ballet-master, and four years later staged his first ballet, Pharaoh's Daughter, setting the style of ballet ŕ grand spectacle which was to dominate Russian ballet for the rest of the century. In 1869 he became ballet-master, and in the 34 years until his retirement in 1903 he created 46 original ballets, the most famous being Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and Swan Lake (1895).

Bibliography: Vera Krasovskaia, Marius Petipa and 'The Sleeping Beauty' (1972)