Between pleasure and censure: Marie Taglioni, choreographer during the Second Empire

This article focuses on the late career of Marie Taglioni who, after having performed as a dancer for three decades, adapted her skills to the employment of teaching and choreographing ballets during the Second Empire. It highlights the role played by her parents in her initial training during a period that saw the feminization of professional ballet in Western Europe. Although the composition of ballets was an activity strongly disapproved of for female dancers, Marie Taglioni managed to develop a professional network that effectively promoted her to the rank of choreographer. Despite this success and after composing two ballets, Le Papillon (1860) and Zara (1862), Taglioni still struggled against gender norms that limited women’s role to the performance of other people’s works, and excluded women from the status of salaried ballet master.