Être et/ou ne pas être ? Le danseur dans le Ballet impérial

It is a commonly held belief that the nineteenth century’s obsession with prima ballerinas marked the demise of the male ballet dancer. Petipa, steeped in the tradition of French ballet, was no exception to this rule, and the ballerina does indeed lie at the centre of his world. Within this eminently female configuration, the male dancer is often reduced to a supporting role, escorting the ballerina who takes centre stage. However, contrary to much of the choreography of the period from which male roles are almost entirely absent, Petipa’s heroes are never weak figures of disdain. The Imperial ballet counted a number of great male dancers, such as Pavel Guerdt, brothers Serge and Nicolas Legat, Christian Johansson or Enrico Cecchetti… It was also from the ferment of the Imperial ballet that a certain Vaslav Nijinsky emerged, heralding the advent of the male dancer’s rehabilitation in the twentieth century. This paper examines the social status of male ballet dancers within the dramaturgy of the Imperial ballet, along with the role they played in both choreography and the collective imagination.