Education
Born in Naples, she studied under Carlo Blasis and the French choreographers Jules Perrot and Arthur Saint-Léon, the latter of whom was her husband from 1845-1851.
choreographer dancer ballet dancer
Born in Naples, she studied under Carlo Blasis and the French choreographers Jules Perrot and Arthur Saint-Léon, the latter of whom was her husband from 1845-1851.
She was a ballerina noted for the brilliance, strength, and vivacity of her dancing. She was also one of few women in the 19th century to be recognized for her talent as a choreographer. Fanny Cerrito was trained in the ballet school of San Carlo Opera House, later under the supervision of Salvatore Taglioni.
Her first stage appearance was in 1832 when she gained recognition almost immediately.
In 1836-1837 her fame started to spread beyond Italy and she appeared in Vienna to reveal some of her own choreographed works. From 1838-1840, she continued to dance with Louisiana Scala in Milan, where she gained even more attention.
While in Milan, Fanny began her collaboration with Jules Perrot, during which they choreographed Ondine, ou Louisiana naïade (1843) as well as Alma (1842) and Lalla Rookh (1846). Later in 1845, her choreographic talent became recognized after she presented her own ballet, Rosida.
Foreign nine seasons, from 1840 to 1848, Cerrito became a very well-respected dancer at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London, where the celebrity chef Alexis Soyer created a molded dessert in her honour that was topped with a miniature figure of the dancer herself, weightlessly poised on a spun sugar zig-zag spiral.