Carte de visite Paul Frecker Marie Taglioni was the first and most famous ballerina of the Romantic era of ballet.
Born in Stockholm, she rose to fame as a dancer when her father (and teacher) Fillipo Taglioni created the ballet La Sylphide (1832) for her. Designed as a showcase for her talent, it was the first ballet where the ballerina danced en pointe for the full length of the work.
Taglioni retired from performing in 1847. She later taught social dance and deportment to children and society ladies and also took a limited number of ballet pupils. Her only choreographic work was Le Papillon (1860) for her student Emma Livry (who famously died in 1863 when her stage costume caught fire.) Taglioni died in Marseilles in 1884.
