Pierina Legnani (1863–1930) was an Italian ballerina, a terre-à-terre virtuosa extraordinaire, considered one of the greatest ballerinas of all time.
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Legnani was born on September 30, 1863 in Milan. From 1893 until 1901 she was Prima Ballerina Assoluta with the Tsar's Imperial Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg.[1] Legnani trained at La Scala where she developed her technical expertise. She was the first ballerina to introduce the 32 fouettés en tournant into the coda of the Grand Pas d'action of the ballet Cinderella. [2] The 32 turns on pointe is a bravura procedure emphasising the strength and technique of the dancer.
Legnani danced the rôles of Odette and Odile in the 1895 Riccardo Drigo revised version of the ballet Swan Lake .
Her last performance was in the Minkus/Petipa ballet La Camargo on January 28, 1901 after which she retired to live in her villa at Lake Como.[3]
The ballets of Marius Petipa that she danced were as follows—
After retiring from the stage she lived in Italy and served on the examining board of La Scala Ballet School until four months before she died. She died on November 15, 1930.
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