Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo (15 April 1710 in Brussels â€" 28 April
1770 in Paris), sometimes known simply as La Camargo, was a French
dancer. The first woman to execute the entrechat quatre, Camargo was
also allegedly responsible for two innovations in ballet as she was
one of the first dancers to wear slippers instead of heeled shoes,
and, while there is no evidence that she was the first woman to wear
the short calf-length ballet skirt, the now standardized ballet tights
she did help to popularize these. She is said to have been as strong
as the male dancers.Camargo was born on 15 April 1710, and baptised
the same day, in Brussels, the daughter of Ferdinand Joseph de Cupis
and Marie-Anne de Smet. She had two younger brothers, Jean-Baptiste
who later became a composer and violinist, François Cupis de
Renoussard a composer and cellist, and a sister, Madeleine.Her father,
who was of Spanish ancestry, earned a meagre living as violinist and
dancing-master, and from childhood she was trained for the stage. At
ten years of age, she was given lessons by Françoise Prévost
(1680â€"1741), then the first dancer at the Paris Opéra, and at once
obtained an engagement as premiere danseuse, first at Brussels and
then at Rouen.She made her Paris debut on 5 May 1726 at the Paris
Opera Ballet in Les Caractères de la Danse. The piece was
choreographed by her teacher Françoise Prévost to music by Jean
Ferry Rebel. Prévost herself originated the role, and subsequently
taught her popular solo to both Camargo and her other student, Marie
Sallé. Camargo dazzled audiences with her stunning technique and
spritely energy, performing entrechats and cabrioles with brilliant
execution. She became the first woman to execute the entrechat quatre,
and she at once became the rage. She popularized two innovations to
ballet, changing from heeled shoes to slippers, and she was one of the
first ballet-dancers to shorten the skirt to what afterwards became
the regulation length. Every new fashion bore her name; her manner of
doing her hair was copied by all at court; her shoemaker â€" she had a
tiny foot â€" made his fortune. Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter