Filippo Taglioni

Filippo Taglioni was born November 30, 1777, in Milan into a multigenerational Italian dance family. As a choreographer, he trained and prepared his daughter Marie for her 1822 Vienna debut, beginning a collaboration that would reshape ballet. In 1832, at the Paris Opera, Taglioni choreographed *La Sylphide* with music by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer—a work that joined supernatural Romantic narrative to Marie's light, elevated performance style and pointe work. *La Sylphide* is described as the first great Romantic ballet, and its 1832 premiere marked the beginning of ballet's Romantic era. The work established a theatrical model centered on ethereal movement, delicacy, and the illusion of weightlessness that would define the period. Taglioni died February 11, 1871, in Como, leaving a legacy transmitted not as intact choreography but as a movement ideal and creative vision embodied by his daughter and sustained through later reconstructions and versions.