Ballerina Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo, occasionally known as La Camargo, was born on the 15th of April 1710 in Brussels. She was a French/Belgian dancer known for being the first woman to perform the entrechat quatre, a move where the dancer crosses their legs over four times in the air. She also was very innovative in her dancing days and is famous for the introduction of wearing slippers in place of heeled shoes. She is also famous for being the first female to wear a short calf-length ballet skirt, with tights underneath, which are now a standard part of dress for ballerinas. Her father, Ferdinand Joseph de Cupis, was a violinist and also a dance master. Marie was trained from early childhood to perform on the stage.
The first dancer at the Paris Opera, Francoise Prevost, became her dance instructor when she was only ten and through that connection she gain the role as premiere daneuse in Brussels and then later at Rouen. On 5 May, 1726 she made her debut in Paris, at the Paris Opera ballet, in the production Les Caracteres de la Danse. It was here that she performed the entrechat quatre and began to gain fame. She soon afterwards introduced wearing slippers and shortened skirts, which eventually became regulation length. Because of these innovative ideas, her name was soon given to every new fashion. She was then copied by many, even to the extent that all those who came to court began to copy her hairstyles.
Among her list of admirers was Count Louis de Bourbon of Clermont, who was one of many who were nearly ruined by her extravagance. She became his mistress and at his request, she retired from the stage for several years from 1736 to 1741. In 1741, she then resumed her dancing career for ten more years before retiring on a government pension in 1751. During her career, she performed in 78 ballets and operas. She had a famous portrait painted by Nicolas Lancret that exists in several versions. Some of these works are now placed in the Wallace Collection, London and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. One thing that is interesting about these paintings is that she is portrayed in heeled shoes while poised a demi point. On April 28th 1770, after a brilliant career, the ballerina Marie de Camargo died in Paris at the age of 60.
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