Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa

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Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa as Mazourka in Le Diable à Quatre. Saint Petersburg. Circa 1861.
Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa as Mazourka in Le Diable à Quatre. Saint Petersburg. Circa 1861.

Mariia Sergeyevna Surovshchikova-Petipa (b. 1836 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – d. 1882 in Pyatigorsk, Russian Empire), was Prima ballerina to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, and wife of the noted choreographer Marius Petipa.

[edit] Life

Mariia Sergeyevna Surovshchikova was born in 1836, the illegitimate daughter of a St. Petersburg milliner. She studied at the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, graduating in 1854. After her graduation from the institute she entered into the corps de ballet of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and in 1854 married Marius Petipa, who at that time served as Premier danseur to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. Upon her marriage she took the name of Surovshchikova-Petipa.

Her rise to the rank of Ballerina coincided with Petipa's own rise from fledgling choregrapher to Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatres. As Petipa was given more and more oppurtunites to stage his own early works, it was Surovshchikova-Petipa who danced the principal roles. Petipa also revived many already-existing ballets for her, including Joseph Mazilier's Le Corsaire in 1863.

She bore Petipa two children—Marie Mariusovna Petipa (1857-1930), the noted ballerina who danced in many of her father's works; and Jean Mariusovich Petipa (1859-1971?).

In 1875 Petipa and Surovshchikova-Petipa divorced. She died in 1882 of virulent smallpox in Pyatigorsk.

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