Famous Ballet Dancers
There are so many famous ballet dancers in history. There are dancers known for their great skill. There are dancers known for there grace and beauty of movement. There are also dancers known for breaking tradition and moving ballet forward. Finally there are dancers known for becoming great teachers and notators.
When creating this part of my site I had no idea where to start. There are so many great dancers in history and today. From the beginning of dance the dancers themselves were not focused on very much. First dance had a purpose. As I explain in the history portion of this website, dance was used in war, peace and for the gods.
Even going to the middle ages dance was for the kings and queens. They were the stars of the show. The dancers were there for entertainment and were not considered professionals. It wasn’t until King Louis the XIV decided to stop dancing that the professionals started to emerge.
From there nothing stopped professional dancers. In the 1700s dancers were breaking many boundaries in the name of their art. Jean Georges Noverre had a big hand in encouraging dance and movement to be compatible with all of the other elements in a ballet including the music and the design elements. Marie Camargo and Marie Sall altered their costumes to show off their skill.
Other dancers of that time period who were known for their incredible skill were Barbara Campanini, Gaetan Vestris and his son Auguste Vestris.
Moving into the 1800s the big event that happened was dancing on pointe. Marie Taglioni really made the public take notice of toe dancing and it was a must for ballerinas ever since. Her father, Filippo Taglioni was a great choreographer at the time and helped bring his daughter to stardom. Other great ballerinas of the time were Fanny Elssler and Carlotta Grisi.
Finally we come to an era where the names of famous ballet dancers are more well known to you and me. Some names that may be familiar to you from the 1900s are Anna Pavlova, George Balanchine, Rudlof Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
For this this portion of my site. I decided to begin with famous ballet dancers that are the most searched on the web today. Like I said, there are so many dancers that deserve to be written about. I will add more as I go along.
One of the dancers is Gillian Murphy who dances with the American Ballet Theatre. Other dancers that have danced with ABT among other companies are Diana Vishneva, who originally began dancing with the Mariinsky Theatre and Rasta Thomas who has started his own dance troupe. Misty Copeland was the first African American ballerina promoted to Principal with ABT in 2015.
Other Russian born dancers are Altynai Asylmuratova and Yulia Makhalina who both danced with the Mariinsky Theatre.
Finally going back into history we find August Bournonville known for his own style, the Bournonville School.
Keep checking back for more dancers coming soon!