Anyone with even a passing interest in ballet has encountered Marius Petipa. Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty? Contemporary companies staging those productions are likely following Petipa’s directions or rebelling against them. In the first English language biography of the Frenchman in the court of the czars, dance critic Nadine Meisner takes a close look at Petipa’s work and has lots to examine—he composed choreography for 50 ballets, staged many more and trained the cast of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. She calls George Balanchine his “spiritual son.” Although not a familiar name, Petipa deserves to rank with the most enduring artists of the 19th century and the rich culture that thrived despite (because of?) the peculiar brand of czarist autocracy.
