Pierina Legnani

[Guest dancer04]

For one of my college classes we were assigned a dancer to research and write a paper over. Well, the only dancer in our little "pre-test" that I didn't know about was Legnani therefore that is who my paper is to be written about. I am really struggling finding books or periodicals on her. Does anyone know of any books that she would be in? I only know that she was the first Odette/Odile and the first to do the 32 fouettes. I can't exactly write a paper stating only those two things. Our professor also wants us to have some sort of visual aid for our oral presentation. I highly doubt that there will be a video of her since she was alive from 1863-1930. I did find the information on Ballet Alert Performances. I'm stuck!

[Mel Johnson]

The most widespread of the books that recall Legnani is Tamara Karsavina's autobiography Theater Street. You're probably going to have to go into the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature to find magazine articles about her. Also consult the International Encyclopedia of Dance for bibliographic citations. You may also need Poole's Guide to Nineteenth Century Periodicals to find material not cited there. Good luck. My own suggestion for visual aids would be to make, via a photocopy machine, transparency foils of stills of her. Use an overhead projector.