Giovanna Baccelli

Giovanna Francesca Antonia Guiseppe Zanerini, known as Baccelli, was one of the most popular female dancers of her day. She made her debut at the Opera House in 1774, dancing the Rose in Le Ballet des Fleurs, with newspaper comment on her ‘brilliancy of execution’ (Public Advertiser, 1774, Nov. 22). This led to a career as a principle dancer at that theatre which lasted until 1786. Between 1776 and 1783 she appeared several times as a featured dancer at the Paris Opéra, and later returned to her birthplace in Venice to dance at the Teatro San Benedetto. Her career spanned a time when ballet, under the auspices of French dancing masters such as Jean Georges Noverre, was developing from an interlude between the acts of an opera to an independent art form in its own right. Baccelli’s style of dancing bridged the transition between the grand classical forms of the French court earlier in the century, and the development of new more expressive styles.