The Success of Warsaw Dancers in St Petersburg in February 1851
Janina Pudełek
Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music (Poland)
Abstract
The author turns to an anecdote about Warsaw ballet dancers visiting St Petersburg upon the invitation of the Russian tsar, who was enchanted by the mazurka woven by the choreographer Roman Turczynowicz into a performance of Le Diable à quatre (1847). The story is evoked by Henryk Liński in the second volume of his monograph book Taniec [Dance] (ed. Mateusz Gliński, Warsaw, 1930). The present author verifies it by investigating archive sources in Poland and – thanks to Joanna Sibilska, a student at St. Petersburg Conservatory – in Russian. She establishes the exact date and location of the Warsaw performance and cites the critic Antoni Lesznowski’s opinon about it. New details concerning the dates of the performances in Russia and names of dancers are revealed: apart from Jan Popiel, whose name is mentioned by Liński, the group that travelled to St. Petersburg included Filipina Damse, Józefina Karska, Honorata Stolpe, Karolina Straus, Arnold Gillert, Antoni Kwiatkowski, Hipolit Meunier, as well as two understudies: Antonina Koćmierowska and Leopold Majewski. The researchers reconstruct the details of their guest repertoire (including performances with Carlotta Grisi, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa) and its reception, as well as its impact on the St. Petersburg stage.
Keywords:
ballet, ballet history, dance, dance history, polish ballet abroad, Antoni LesznowskiReferences
Liński, Henryk. „Dzieje baletu w Polsce”. W: Taniec, redakcja Mateusz Gliński, tom 2, 41–95. Warszawa: „Muzyka”, 1930.
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Val’berg, Aleksandr Ivanovich. „Vospominaniya artista imperatorskikh teatrov T.A. Stukolkina (zapisannyye po ego rasskazu A. Val'bergom)”. Artist, no 45, kn. 1 (1895): 126–133.
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Val’berg, Aleksandr Ivanovich. „Vospominaniya artista imperatorskikh teatrov T.A. Stukolkina (zapisannyye po ego rasskazu A. Val'bergom)”. Artist, no 46, kn. 2 (1895): 117–125.
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Źródła prasowe: Gazeta Warszawska, nr 290 (1847); Kurier Warszawski, nr 63, 150 (1851); Sankt Peterburgskiye Vedomosti, nr 29 (1981); Severnaya pchela, nr 56 (1851).
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Archiwalia: Rossiyskiy Gosudarstvennyy Istoricheskiy Arkhiv w Petersburgu.
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Authors
Janina PudełekFryderyk Chopin Academy of Music Poland
Dr hab. Janina Pudełek
dance critic and researcher, historian. She learned dance at Janina Mieczyńska's school, later also in the classes of Jerzy Gogół and Leon Wójcikowski. She studied Polish philology at the University of Warsaw and dramaturgy at the State Theatre School in Warsaw. She obtained her doctoral degree and habilitation at the Institute of Art at Polish Academy of Sciences. She worked in the editorial team of Pamiętnik Teatralny, Taniec and Encyklopedia Muzyczna PWN, in the State Scientific Publishing House, the University of Warsaw Library, the Theatre Museum. Author of such books as Warszawski balet w latach 1867–1915 [Warsaw Ballet in the Years 1867–1915] and Warszawski balet romantyczny: 1802–1866 [Warsaw Romantic Ballet: 1802–1866]. Since 1974, a lecturer of history and aesthetics of ballet at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music. She publishes regularly in Pamiętnik Teatralny, Ruch Muzyczny, Teatr, Taniec and others. For the latter, she translated excerpts from the writings of Carl Blasis (Basic Treatise on the Theory and Practice of the Art of Dance and The Terpsychora Code). Member of the Polish ITI Centre.
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