Lucien Petipa

Lucien Petipa (22 December 1815 – 7 July 1898) was a French ballet dancer during the Romantic period, and the elder brother to Marius Petipa, the famous ballet master of the Russian Imperial Ballet. He was born in Marseille and died in Versailles.

The son of Jean-Antoine Petipa, he was the original interpreter of many of the principal male roles during the Romantic era, working with choreographers such as Jean Coralli among others. Probably the most known role he created was Albert, Duke of Sliesa (later to be known as Count Albrecht) in the two-act ballet of Giselle in 1841, opposite the Italian-born ballerina Carlotta Grisi for whom the ballet was created. Between 1860 and 1868 he was maître de ballet at the Paris Opera and between 1872 and 1873 he ran the La Monnaie theater in Brussels.