MARIE

See also:

• ANNE (1665-1714)
• ANNE (1693-1740)

ANNE DE CUPIS DE

See also:

• MARIE ANNE DE CUPIS DE CAMARGO (1710-1770)

CAMARGO (1710-1770)  , French dancer, of Spanish descent, was born in Brussels on the 15th of April 1710 . Her father, Ferdinand Joseph de Cupis, earned a scanty 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 Mlle Francoise Prevost (168o-1741), then the first dancer at the Paris Opera, and at once obtained an engagement as premiere danseuse, first at Brussels and then at Rouen . Under her grandmother's family name of Camargo she made her Paris debut in 1726, and at once became the rage . Every new fashion bore her name; her manner of doing her hair was copied by all at court; her shoemaker—she had a tiny foot—made his fortune . She had many titled adorers whom she nearly ruined by her extravagances, among others Louis de Bourbon, comte de Clermont . At his wish she retired from the stage from 1736 to 1741 . In her time she appeared in seventy-eight ballets or operas, always to the delight of the public . She was the first ballet-dancer to shorten the skirt to what afterwards became the regulation length . There is a charming portrait of her by Nicolas Lancret in the Wallace collection, London .