Jean-Baptiste Lande- Imperial Ballet Master

The Imperial Mariinsky Company

The Imperial Mariinsky Company was a dance school/ company. This company was founded in St. Petersburg in 1738 with the motivation and drive from Peter I (Peter the Great). This company would pave the way for Russia to become the leaders in the world of ballet. This is also when classical ballet would reach its zenith. 

How would this school/company become formed? At first, there was no school of dance in Russia it was just a simple way of expressing yourself through movement. When Peter I returned back to Russia from his travels in 1698, he pushed to modernize Russia and Ballet was a way to do so. Before Peter I died, he invited many influential performers to Russia. One of the most influential was Jean Baptiste Lande who would remain in Russia to start the first school of dance in Russia. After Peter I died, ballet was still a critical part to Russian culture. In September of 1737, Lande presented a letter to Empress Anna, who was Peter's niece asking her to establish a school of dance under his direction as Ballet Master. On May 4, 1738 Empress Anna made a decree acknowledging Lande as the Imperial Ballet Master. He was then responsible for teaching different forms of theatrical dance. It wasn't until May 15, 1738 that the school was actually founded in St. Petersburg and would become the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School. The school was located in the Winter Palace. The school consisted 3 years of extensive training. The school thrived for two years but when Empress Anna died, the classes stopped for a year. Lande was sent away from Russia to recruit new dancers for the school. Once there was an established authority back in Russia when Empress Elizabeth Petrovna came to the throne in 1741, the dance classes resumed and Lande was called back to Russia. At this time, there were two different forms of dance taught at the school the more serious French inspired ballet taught by Lande and the comic dance theme inspired by the Italian commedia dell'arte taught by Fusano (Antonio Rinaldi) and his wife Giulia. This combination of  both the serious techniques of dance and the comic techniques would become the foundation for the Russian style of ballet. The school developed even more over the next few years especially when it became influenced by the patronage of Catherine the Great when she established the Directorate of Imperial Theaters to administer ballet, opera, and drama in 1766. The first Russian choreographer named Ivan Ivanovich Valberkh emerged from this school. However in 1801, the father of Russian ballet, Charles Didelot, would come to St. Petersburg and move the Russian Ballet into a Romantic period. The school would become the Kirov Ballet in later years.

Mariinsky Theater, St. Petersburg

Sources:
Yahoo Images- Jean-Baptiste Lande and Mariinsky Theater

Webb, Shawncey. "Foundation of St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet School." Great Events from History: The Eighteenth Century. Hackensack: Salem, 2006. n. pag. Salem Online. Web. 06 May. 2015. <http://online.salempress.com>.