Jean Coralli

Jean Coralli (15 January 1779 to 1 May 1854) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer, born Giovanni Coralli Peracini into a Bolognese family living in Paris, where his father was a comedian at the Theatre Italien. He studied at the Paris Opera ballet school, began his career as a dancer and choreographer in Vienna, and later served as ballet master at the Hoftheater there. With his wife Teresa he formed a celebrated dancing couple who appeared as principal dancers in Milan, Venice and Lisbon. From 1825 to 1829 he was ballet master at the Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, and in 1831 he became premier maitre de ballet of the Paris Opera. There he created La Tempete (1834) and Le Diable boiteux (1836), the latter famous for Fanny Elssler dancing La Cachucha. The pinnacle of his career came in 1841 with Giselle, ou Les Wilis, made with Jules Perrot to a scenario by Theophile Gautier and music by Adolphe Adam, the quintessential Romantic ballet of the nineteenth century. His later works included La Peri (1843), Eucharis (1844) and Ozai (1847).