Katti Lanner

Cathrine Josepha Lanner (born Katharina Josefa Lanner; commonly known as Katti Lanner) (14 September, 1829 – 15 November, 1908) was a Viennese ballet dancer and choreographer.

Lanner was born in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Josef Lanner, the director of ballet music at the Court in Vienna. She studied at the Vienna Court Opera, becoming a pupil of Isidore Carey. She left Vienna in 1856 and worked in several German ballet companies, marrying Johann Alfred Geraldini, the director of the Viennese Ballet Company.

With this company, she toured Europe, Russia and the USA. She first played at Drury Lane, London in 1871, returning in 1875 where she took over the National Training School of Dancing, producing many ballets, pantomimes and trained a number of protégées for the stage.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, she choreographed numerous works for the Empire Theatre's ballet company, working with composer-director Leopold Wenzel. This did much to revive the moribund art of ballet in Britain, which had declined in the 19th century. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=zSJ7zXkBc3MC&pg=PA258&lpg=PA258&dq=%22Leopold+Wenzel%22+Empire&source=web&ots=4KEUCZHe4A&sig=BUoAY2D-exCZyiB79Um7zhdf3TE&hl=en Richards, Jeffrey. "Imperialism and Music: Britain 1876-1953", pp. 257–60 (2002) Manchester University Press] ISBN 0719045061]

She died at Clapham in 1908 and was buried with fellow dancer Giuseppe Venuto de Francesco at West Norwood Cemetery

Notes

External links

* [http://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no50.shtml Newsletter 50] Friends of West Norwood Cemetery
* [http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/23007/mcms.html Katti Lanner] Carte de visite photograph at Picture History
* J. Gilliland, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/56374 Lanner, Katharina Josefa (1829–1908)] , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (Subscription required)