Interview

DB: Hello Marie Taglioni. How are you doing?

MT: I am doing very good, thank you.

DB: Today I’ll be interviewing you about your life and career so let’s get started.

MT: Very well.

DB: What are some events early on in your life that made you get interested in the arts?

           

MT: Well, mio padre Filippo Taglioni, being a famous choreographer started training me at a young age. It wasn’t exactly my choice but I did enjoy dancing. However my father wanted me to be very good, perhaps the best so he worked me very hard. This made ballet my life and got me hooked on it forever. I got very good at ballet as my father had hoped.

            Starting out in ballet before my fathers training was hard for me. My French ballet teacher said such awful things like “Est-ce que le petit bossu jamais apprendre à danser?” which basically means will that little hunchback ever learn to dance? It was very hard being rejected at the age of six. I still managed to stay with dance and with my fathers training became very good.

DB: What kind of a role did your mentors play in helping you develop the talents you have as an artist?

           

MT: I would say my father was my mentor throughout life. He trained me, raised me, and choreographed on me. I also studied with Jean Francois Coulon. My father worked me very hard at a young age. Sei ore al giorno! I was very exhausted. Always exhausted. I was so tired after six hours of training for a while I had to be undressed and put into bed every night!

Comunque, all of that training made ballet my life. I was always dancing throughout my life. My fathers training, though very hard, paid off well for my debut in 1822 when I was twenty. Dancing en pointe was one my great talents because when I was dancing, audiences thought It looked effortless and graceful. For this I have my father to thank.

DB: What was the world of art or dance like when you entered it?

           

MT: The world of dance was transforming into something new when I came into it. I was one of the first people to introduce pointe work and to dance full-length ballets en pointe. I was known all over Europe for my dancing en pointe. I also did other things that would come to change ballet such as shortening my skirt in La Sylphide, the ballet made for me by my father. This shortening of the skirt would transform into the use of tutus in classical ballets later on.

            I was considered very famous and I didn’t have very much “competition” until Fanny Ellsler made her debut at Paris Opera House. I cried when I first saw her dance. She was very good and younger than me so appealing to many people as they were tiring of me. The world of dance was really changed by my presence because I changed many things for ballet.

DB: How did the cultural, economic, and political situations of the time impact your work?

           

MT: The political situations of the time did not affect my work very much at all. The economy at the time was very good and people were having enough money to go out and enjoy shows in the evening. People even had enough money to buy my used pointe shoes. I heard that they had boiled them up and eaten them. That was extremely flattering that people were enjoying my pointe work so much that they were eating my pointe shoes!

            Some people were not as fortunate though. In the winter of 1835 in Russia I was held up by a highwayman in my carriage. The man ordered me to dance for him on a panthers skin spread over the snow in the moonlight. It was a very frightening experience for me but also very memorable. I still keep a piece of artificial ice in my jewelry box to remember that night.

DB: What were your major accomplishments and methods you used in dance?

           

MT: Some of my major accomplishments are dancing in La Sylphide, a ballet my father choreographed for me. I also might count selling my point shoes for 200 rubles to be eaten by a group of people as and accomplishment! One accomplishments I consider is becoming famous all across Europe. Being one of the first women to dance en pointe and creating a new style of dance involving floating leaps and balanced poses.

            My main method of dance was en pointe. I did not do very much partnering but mostly solo work en pointe. I dance La Sylphide, a full-length ballet, en pointe and that is something I am most well known for. People admired my grace and ability to seem to float across the stage.

DB: What were some of the key opportunities you had that led to turning points in your life and dance?

           

MT: One of the key opportunities I had was having Filippo Taglioni as my father. He was a well-known choreographer and he was a dancer so he could train me well. He also knew people to get me connected with places like the Paris Opera. Because my father was a choreographer he was a key opportunity for me to obtain repetoire. He choreographed many ballets on me and turned me into the strong dancer I was. A great opportunity for me was being known very well throughout Europe. People would hear about the famous Taglioni dancing en pointe in France and ask me to come do a tour in the country.

DB: What personal choices did you make to become successful?

           

MT: Some of the personal choices I made to become successful were to train six hard hours a day. It was a very exhausting time in my life but it made me stronger than all of the other dancers. Being strong was necessary en pointe so my strength was a very positive virtue. A personal choice I made for my art is to sacrifice my life. Dance became my life. I studied solely on dance and I stayed on the path of dance to become better. I made the personal choice to be determined with dance.

DB: What hardships did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?

           

MT: As I have said I went through the hardships of sei ore al giorno of dance to get better. I became so exhausted at times that I had to be undressed and put to bed. These hardships only made me stronger in the long run and improved my pointe work very much.

DB: What kind of limitations did you run into as both an artist and a person?

           

MT: I ran into the limitation of my look. Even at age six I was regarded as an “ugly duckling” by my French dance teacher. He also called me a hunchback. This limited me because there were some younger dancers such as Fanny Ellsler who were younger and prettier than me. I was a better dancer en pointe though and I was well known in Europe for it so she went on tour in America but there were other artists that were coming up towards the end of my career that limited me to what roles I could do with Paris Opera.

DB: What personal stories best illustrate how you became successful in the arts?

           

MT: The story of my father practicing with my everyday for sei ores is my most memorable and most fond memory of my father. Another very fond memory that will live on for generations is his choreography of La Sylphide that I will never forget because he choreographed it on me.

DB: Well thank you very much Marie Taglioni for your time today in this interview.

MT: Your very welcome. It was a pleasure talking to you.

             

           

Artists interview

Marie Taglioni

  Bibliography
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Clarke, Mary, and David Vaughan. The Encyclopedia of Dance & Ballet. New York: Putnam, 1977. Print.
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