Lucia Cormani was a 19th and early 20th century Italian ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

 dancer and one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Dance

Royal Academy of Dance

The Royal Academy of Dance is an international dance education and training organization, and examination board that specialises in the teaching and technique of Ballet. The RAD was established in London, England in 1920 as the Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, and received its...

.

Lucia's life is not well documented, in part because she never danced in the most famous female roles. She was probably born about 1854 and died shortly after 1934. Her name appears on posters of ballet performances in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, St Petersburg, Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 (1883) and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 (1884). In 1889 she appeared as the Premiere Danseuse Assoluta in Cinderella; Or, Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home at Her Majesty's Theatre, London http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/cin8.htm and in 1900 she danced the role of Canio in a Metropolitan Opera production of Pagliacci (Philadelphia).http://frankhamilton.org/ph/ph0.pdf

Because of her tall muscular frame, Lucia was several times cast as a "travesty dancer" (a woman dressed as a man) -- for example as a male pirate chief in the ballet "Algeria" in 1887, and as a sorcerer in "Enchantment." Such roles were sometimes added for effect in ballets without being properly integrated into the plot.

Lucia's greatest success was as a choreographer from about 1893 to 1911. In 1903 she choreographed a production of Carmen

Carmen

Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...

for the Alhambra Theatre

Alhambra Theatre

The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was...

 in London. She also taught, using the stage of the Alhambra since she had no studio of her own. In 1920, she collaborated with four other great dancers -- Adeline Genée

Adeline Genée

Dame Adeline Genée DBE was a Danish/British ballet dancer.-Early years:Anina Kirstina Margarete Petra Jensen was born in Århus, Denmark. Her uncle, Alexandre Genée, gave her dancing lessons from the age of three. When she was eight, Alexandre and his wife, the former Antonia Zimmerman, adopted her...

, Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was a famous Russian ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was most noted as a Principal Artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev...

, Edouard Espinosa

Edouard Espinosa

Edouard Espinosa was co-founder and Principal Examiner of the Association of Operatic Dancing. Born in Moscow - the son of Léon Espinosa and Mathilda Oberst...

, and Phyllis Bedells

Phyllis Bedells

Phyllis Bedells was an English ballerina and teacher. She studied with Bolm, Cecchetti, and Pavlova. From 1907 she was a dancer at the London Empire Theatre and became the first British prima ballerina there in 1914. She left in 1916 to dance in West End musical revues and in opera ballets at...

 -- to form the Association of Teachers of Operatic Dancing, which was later to become the Royal Academy of Dance. Between them, the five represented the principal dance training methods of the time - Genée the Danish school, Karsavina the Russian school, Cormani the Italian school, Espinosa the French school, and Bedells the English school. In 1923 the Association began a series of Annual Matinées; ten of Cormani's students participated in the premier performance, dancing a tarantella.

Her collected letters are in the London Theatre Museum and there are dozens of photographs of Cormani in the National Portrait Gallery.