Camargo, Marie-Ann de Cupis de

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Marie-Ann de Cupis de Camargo

1710–1771

Ballerina

Beginnings.

One of two great prima ballerinas in mid-eighteenth-century France, Marie-Ann de Cupis de Camargo was born at Brussels to a family of mixed Franco-Flemish and Spanish heritage. In her youth she studied with Francoise Prevost, the greatest ballerina in Paris at the time, and in 1720, she was engaged at the Brussels ballet. Her Paris debut occurred in a production of Les caractères de la danse in 1726, and her performance was so brilliant that it excited the jealousy of her teacher, who refused to work with her anymore. She next studied with Blondy and Dumoulin, two other masters of the time. Between the time of her debut and retirement in 1751, she performed in almost eighty ballets in Paris. A fierce rivalry developed between Marie Camargo and Marie Sallé, the other great ballerina of the period. Voltaire, the greatest philosophe of the age, noted that Camargo's style was quick and brilliant, while Sallé's was more lyrical and expressive. Camargo's technical facility was apparently enormous, and she was the first woman to perform several demanding leaps, including the cabriole, pas battu, and entrechats—steps that had previously been reserved for men. Madame Camargo has also long been credited with establishing the ballerina's normative position with feet pointed at a 90 degree angle to the body. Eventually, she shortened her skirts, an innovation that allowed her to perform even more demanding footwork, and which opened up new technical arenas for ballerinas who followed.

Social Acceptance.

Throughout her career her performances were often associated with the operas of Jean-Baptiste Lully, the late seventeenth-century composer who had largely fixed the canons of the genre in France. As revivals of these works were mounted, however, additional dances were added to the productions to show off the skills of dancers like Camargo and Sallé. In one production a male dancer failed to appear on cue, and Camargo scored a great success by dancing in his place a fantastically improvised ballet. Camargo's prowess on the theatrical stage allowed her admittance into some of the most cultured spheres of mid-eighteenth-century Parisian society. She became a darling of the "salon" set, and her hairstyles, shoes, and hats were widely copied by upper-class Parisian women. French chefs of the period named a number of dishes after her, including such delicacies as Soufflé à la Camargo and Filet de Boeuf Camargo. Prominent French artists painted her portrait on several occasions, and her reputation survived long after her death. During the nineteenth century, for example, two operas were written about her life, and in 1930, the Camargo Society of London, a dancing troupe, was named after her. Despite her widespread fame—a fame achieved after just a few years of performing in the Paris Opera—Camargo retired in 1734 to become the mistress of the Count of Clermont. Seven years later, though, she returned to Paris and continued to perform in the Opera ballet until 1751, at which time the king granted her a state pension for the remainder of her life. Besides her long-term association with Clermont, she did not marry.

Significance.

Like her rival Sallé, Camargo's career opened up new possibilities for ballerinas who followed her. A trailblazer in the realm of technique, Camargo's dancing set a new standard of technical excellence. During the Baroque, rising standards of performance in both the opera and the ballet helped to create an audience that avidly followed and tracked the best singers and dancers of the day. The split in opinion that occurred in Paris over the relative merits of Camargo and Sallé was typical of the tenor of the times, as audiences devoted the kind of attention to these celebrities that modern people do to sports stars and popular musicians.