''La Prima Ballerina, ou L'embuscade'' or ''The Traveling Dancer'' (aka ''La Danseuse en voyage'') is a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

(choreographic episode) in one act, with choreography by

Marius Petipa Marius Ivanovich Petipa (russian: Мариус Иванович Петипа), born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa (11 March 1818), was a French ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. Petipa is one of the most influential ballet masters an ...

, music by Cesare Pugni and libretto by Paul Taglioni. It was based on a ballet created by Paul Taglioni for the

Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established ...

, London first presented on June 14, 1849. It was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on November April 16, 1864 (

Julian Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (give ...

/ Gregorian calendar dates), at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia. The principal Dancers were

Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa Mariia Sergeyevna Surovshchikova-Petipa (27 February 1836 – 16 March 1882) was prima ballerina to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres and wife of the noted choreographer Marius Petipa. Life Mariia Sergeyevna Surovshchikova was born in St ...

as the Prima Ballerina, and

Timofei Stukolkin Timofei Alekseyevich Stukolkin (russian: Тимофей Алексеевич Стуколкин; , the village Kozmino of Simbirsk province - , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian ballet dancer. ''Oxford Dictionary of Dance'' called him "one of the gr ...

as Rinaldo. A variation from this ballet—composed by Petipa in 1905 for the ''Prima Ballerina''

Olga Preobrajenskaya Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska (russian: О́льга Ио́сифовна Преображе́нская; born Preobrazhenskaya; – 27 December 1962) was a Russian ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet and a ballet instructor. Biograp ...

—was the last choreography Petipa ever created (as noted in his Diaries).

Lev Ivanov Lev Ivanovich Ivanov (russian: link=no, Лев Ива́нович Ива́нов; 2 March 1834, Moscow – 24 December 1901, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet. ...

produced a revival for the Imperial Ballet, with the composer/conductor Riccardo Drigo editing and making additions to Cesare Pugni's original score. First presented on July 26/August 7 (

/ Gregorian calendar dates), 1893 for the Imperial court at the theatre of

Krasnoe Selo Krasnoye Selo (russian: Кра́сное Село́, lit. ''Red village''). Г. П. Смолицкая. "Топонимический словарь Центральной России". "Армада-Пресс", 2002 is a munic ...

. St. Petersburg, Russia.

See also