Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo

Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo
Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo, by Eugène Gervais, after Nicolas Lancret
Born	Marie Anne de Cupis 15 April 1710 Brussels
Died	28 April 1770 (aged 60) Paris, France
Occupation	dancer
Known for	several important innovations in ballet
Religion	Roman Catholic
Parents	Ferdinand Joseph de Cupis Marie-Anne de Smet

Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo (15 April 1710, Brussels –28 April 1770, Paris) sometimes known simply as La Gorda Camargo, was a French/Belgian dancer. The first woman to execute the entrechat quatre, Camargo was also responsible for two innovations in ballet as she was the first dancer to wear slippers instead of heeled shoes, and she was the first female to wear the short calf-length ballet skirt and the now standardized ballet tights.

Early life

She was born on 15 April 1710, and baptised the same day, in Brussels, the daughter of Ferdinand Joseph de Cupis and Marie-Anne de Smet. She had a younger brother, Jean-Baptiste who later became a composer and violinist, and a sister, Madeleine.

Her father, who was of Spanish ancestry, earned a meagre living as violinist and dancing-master, and from childhood she was trained for the stage. At ten years of age, she was given lessons by Françoise Prévost (1680-1741), then the first dancer at the Paris Opéra, and at once obtained an engagement as premiere danseuse, first at Brussels and then at Rouen.

La Camargo Dancing, by Nicolas Lancret, c.1730

Career

She made her Paris debut on 5 May 1726 at the Paris Opera Ballet. The production was Les Caracteres de la Danse, in which she was the first woman to execute the entrechat quatre, and she at once became the rage. She introduced two innovations to ballet, changing from heeled shoes to slippers, and she was the first ballet-dancer to shorten the skirt to what afterwards became the regulation length. Every new fashion bore her name; her manner of doing her hair was copied by all at court; her shoemaker — she had a tiny foot — made his fortune.

She had many titled admirers whom she nearly ruined by her extravagances, among others Louis de Bourbon, Count of Clermont. At his wish she retired from the stage from 1736 to 1741, resuming her dancing career from 1741 to 1751. After finally retiring, she received a government pension.

In her time she appeared in 78 ballets or operas, always to the delight of the public. Nicolas Lancret painted a famous portrait of her that exists in several versions including works now held at the Wallace Collection, London,^[1] and at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (shown right). In them she wears heeled shoes and is poised à demi point.

A ballet, Camargo, based on the incident when she and her sister Madeleine were abducted by the Comte de Melun in May 1728 was created by Marius Petipa and the composer Léon Minkus for the Russian Imperial Ballet, premiering December 19, 1872 with the famous ballerina, Adèle Grantzow, as Marie Anne Camargo. The work was later revived in 1901 for the Russian Imperial Ballet by Lev Ivanov for Pierina Legnani. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, however, the ballet was never performed again.

The following incident takes place in the third volume of Casanova's History of My Life:

Immediately after Dupré I see a female dancer who rushes all over the stage like a madwoman, making entrechats to right and left in rapid succession, but scarcely rising, and violently applauded.
     "She is the famous Camargo, my friend, whom you have come to Paris in time to see. She is sixty years old too. She is the first woman dancer who dared to leap, before her they did not, and the wonderful thing is that she does not wear drawers."
     "I beg your pardon, I saw."
     "What did you see? It was only her skin, which, to tell the truth, is not white."
     "La Camargo," I answered penitently, "does not please me; I prefer Dupré."
An admirer, a very old man, who was on my left, said that when she was young she did the saut de basque and even the gargouillade and that he had never seen her thighs even though she danced without drawers.
     "But if you never saw her thighs how can you swear that she did not have on drawers?"
     "Oh, that sort of thing is easy to find out. I see that Monsieur is a foreigner."
     "You are right about that."

Death

She died on 28 April 1770 in Paris at the age of 60.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

1. ^ Wallace Collection on-line:Mlle de Camargo Dancing

Persondata
Name	Camargo, Marie Anne De Cupis De
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	15 April 1710
Place of birth	Brussels
Date of death	28 April 1770
Place of death	Paris, France