History

Since ballet’s move from the court to the stage in the 17th century, dancers have been divided into ranks based on skill and technical ability. These ranks organised the dancers for casting purposes, indicating those who would dance solos, duets, quartets or operate as part of a group. 

By the early 1850s, the Paris Opéra had divided their dancers into three ranks: Sujet, Coryphée and Quadrille. The rank of Quadrille was further divided into 1er Quadrille, 2e Quadrille, 3e Quadrille and Figurantes, the last of which seems to indicate extra supplemental dancers. However, these categorisations were still very much broad divisions, grouping together several different types of dancers into a single rank. For example, the rank of Sujet encompassed both modern-day soloists and principal dancers in the same rank.

It would seem that by the 1850s and 1860s, the broad rank Sujet needed greater distinction, leading to the rank being subdivided into Premiers Sujets (who danced lead rôles), Grand Sujets (who danced more featured rôles such as Pas de Trois, Pas de Quatres and Variations) and Petit Sujets or Demi Sujets (who danced more in small groups).

Ranks under Thompson 

When William Thompson‘s ballet troupe became resident at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Thompson continually expanded the troupe to stage larger works. As such, a method of organising the dancers of the troupe was quickly found be necessary. At the Linden Theatre the troupe had been smaller, and as Thompson was more familiar with the dancers, formal organisation was not much used. However, following the auditions held by Thompson at Her Majesty’s and the expansion of his troupe, Thompson looked to Paris, structuring his troupe along similar lines. Noting the ambiguity of the rank of Sujet, he created a new fourth rank: Première Danseuse or Premier Danseur. This was not a term created by Thompson (as both the French terms and the Italian equivalent of prima ballerina predated Thompson) but Thompson borrowed the term to create an official rank of dancers who only danced lead rôles, as opposed to the term simply referring to a rôle in a production. The lower three ranks were retained from Paris: Sujet, Coryphée and Corps de Ballet (preferred by Thompson to the term Quadrille).

Thompson would continue to hold auditions during his tenure as balletmaster at Her Majesty’s and Covent Garden, a practice continued by his successor Richard Hague. However, the audition process was not as formalised as at the Opéra, with auditions held in varying frequencies and numbers of contracts, dictated less by a pre-decided quota and by the needs of the season at any given time.

This differed slightly to the procedure of the students of the Covent Garden School for Ballet (later the Royal Ballet School) after its 1888 opening. As the students were instructed by the teachers and balletmasters year-round, come graduation the faculty would have a decent idea of each student’s current ability and future potential. As such, the students were not required to formally audition to join the troupe, as their training at the school was considered to be their audition. Once graduation was nearing, the students would be informed whether they had been successful or unsuccessful in gaining a contract with the troupe, informing whether they would need to seek auditions elsewhere. 

It is also worth noting that Covent Garden, like other theatres, maintained its dancers on contracts, that is to say that each dancer’s contract was renewed annually. If the dancer was of high enough rank, negotiations were often part of these contract renewals, with the successes (or lack thereof) of the previous season influencing how much leverage the dancer was able to exert. Additionally, there were so-called supernumeraries, engaged on an ad hoc basis to fill out the corps de ballet if needed, allowing Thompson (and later Hague) an increased number of dancers to stage larger and more elaborate dances. However, once the season drew to a close the supernumeraries’ contracts would end, and they would be let go to find other work. If it was needed, some might be offered permanent contracts to stay on, and most who were offered a year-round contract would accept. As such, Thompson and Hague were able to have (where required) a large corps de ballet without the expense of maintaining them all on contract.

Corps de Ballet

The rank of Corps de Ballet was generally, though not exclusively, the rank into which dancers entered the troupe. These rôles were danced in groups and focused on synchronicity and line, creating the architecture around the solo dancers. It was necessarily the most populous rank, and the majority of dancers would remain at this rank for the entirety of their career.

Coryphée

The rank of Coryphée was a transition between the ranks of Corps de Ballet and Sujet, and the rôles generally reflected as such. Members of this rank often danced both sujet and corps rôles, depending on individual technical skill and the needs of the performance. However, if dancing a corps rôle they were often placed at the front of the formation, with the aim that the weaker dancers, should they happen to get lost, could look to the coryphées to remind them of what came next. Additionally, coryphées were tasked with rôles of smaller corps of four to eight dancers, were individual mistakes would be more difficult to conceal. 

Sujet

The rank of Sujet was a featured rank, generally encompassing those who performed solos apart from the wider group. These could range from Pas de Quatres to Variations à Deux to solo Variations to featured rôles in larger patterns of the corps de ballet. This rank was generally the first rank where dramatic acting became a necessary skill, as secondary rôles (friends or rivals of the main characters) were usually drawn from this rank, meaning the sujet would be required to effectively contribute to the ballet’s action. 

Première Danseuse / Premier Danseur

The rank of Première Danseuse / Premier Danseur were the dancers who portrayed the leading rôles in productions. Often simply referred to as premières or premiers, these were the dancers who carried the largest portion of the dramatic and technical demands of the ballet. It was for them that ballets were revived, reworked and supplemented to tailor the work to their dramatic and technical gifts. They often had a large amount of influence on the ballet and its staging, as their opinions, wishes and demands often shaped the manner in which the ballet was revived or created.

It is worth noting that the rank of première danseuse was similar to, but not equivalent to, the similarly named rank of prima ballerina. Ballerina was a title equivalent to what today would be called principal dancers, i.e. there was usually (though not universally) more than one dancer who held the rank. The title of prima ballerina, on the other hand, signified the “first” or “leading” ballerina of the ballerine, reserved for the danseuse who was in many cases the balletmaster’s primary muse, received the highest salary, benefits, influence and such things. Thompson’s premières were equivalent to ballerine, there being usually more than one, as Thompson resisted formally elevating one of the danseuses above the rest. However, this elevation was often less strictly observed in practice, as the attention lavished by Thompson onto the likes of Isabella Velluti and later Marta Draeger resulted in them being considered by those backstage to be the de facto prima ballerina.

As could be expected, the rank of première or premier came with certain privileges. Benefit performances were perhaps the most visible privilege of this rank, as it was stipulated in their contract that each première or premier was entitled to an annual benefit performance where they received a pre-agreed percentage of the evening’s receipts (the gross box office sales) after the deduction of the “house charges” (also pre-agreed). In general, a first year première or premier would receive 50% of the receipts, which would rise by 5% each year until it reached 70% in their fifth year. This percentage could be raised to as high as 80%, but the remaining 10% was not stipulated as part of the base contract but was awarded at the discretion of the management (both the theatre management and the balletmaster). However, once awarded, the increase would usually be retained for subsequent seasons.

An annual benefit would generally consist of two or three acts extracted from ballets within the repertory, chosen by the recipient of the benefit. The dancer would also have a large say in casting, and would generally choose repertory they had danced previously, though some did use their benefit as an opportunity to revive older repertory or to essay rôles they had not had the chance to dance in their full-length versions. A retirement benefit was also stipulated, giving the dancer the privilege (had they served enough years) of requesting a ballet to be revived for their retirement benefit, with the portion of the receipts usually set at 80%. 

Additionally, each première or premier would receive a dressing room and a dresser to manage their wardrobe. They were also granted preferential use of the theatre’s physician and masseurs. As could be expected, each contract was not identical and each one slightly differed from another, for example, the contracts of some dancers permitted them to leave the winter season early, or indeed, not perform in winter seasons at all to fulfil other obligations. Other privileges included allowances for pointe shoes and carriages, control over their costume fabrics and colours, inclusion in state performances, protocol for injuries and illness, a fixed number of complimentary tickets to every performance they danced in, and the manner in which their name would be printed and used in advertisements and playbills.

Guest Dancers

Despite Thompson’s goal of building up British ballet, he was not at all averse to engaging foreign dancers for his troupe. Additionally, there were occasional engagements of so-called “guest dancers,” dancers who signed contracts to dance with the troupe for one or two seasons before moving onto the next city or theatre on their travels. The vast majority of guest dancers were established foreigners who had included London on their tour around Europe. The terms of the contract differed depending on the dancer; with the contract length, number of performances, exclusivity clauses, benefit performances and other sundries negotiated on a case-by-case between the dancer and the theatre.

It is worth noting that due to the individual nature of guest contracts, dancers were permitted to make differing amounts of revisions to the rôles they performed. For example, one danseuse might receive a new variation, another a completely new pas and a third would dance the original variation. It is also worth noting that a benefit performance was usually included in the contract. Additionally, as guest dancers usually had an established reputation, they were engaged by the theatre in the rank of première or premier and were given mostly leading as opposed to supporting rôles. However, this was by no means universal, as some guest dancers were engaged by the theatre in the rank of sujet.

It goes without saying that not every dancer whom Covent Garden wished to invite to appear on their stage ended up doing so. One example of this is the celebrated Italian danseuse Pierina Legnani. Thompson attempted to engage Legnani on two occasions: first in 1890, when she was in London to dance in Eugenio Casati’s Salandra at the Alhambra Theatre, and again in 1893, when she was in London to dance the princess in the ballet Aladdin at the same theatre. Thompson’s 1890 attempt fell through on contractual terms, as Covent Garden management were not able to reach an agreement that satisfied both Legnani’s requests and her other commitments. In 1893, Thompson attempted again to engage Legnani, but was unable to do so due to an exclusivity clause in Legnani’s contract with the Alhambra which forbade her from dancing at any other London theatre without the express permission of management. Another example of this is Emma Palladino, who was invited to dance at Covent Garden in 1889 and/or 1890. However, possibly due to her position with the Empire Theatre at the time, negotiations fell through and she ended up not appearing on the Covent Garden stage. It would appear that negotiations reached such an advanced stage that the press began to comment on it, leading later writers to erroneously claim that she did in fact appear at Covent Garden.

Below is a list of some notable guest dancers and their tenures in Thompson’s troupe:

Joséphine Decoin (1889-1890)

• Nationality: French
• Previous Theatre: La Monnaie, Brussels
• Engaged Rank: Première danseuse
• Rôles:
  • Diavolina in Diavolina (1889) 
  • Marguerite in Faust (1889) 
  • Odalisque in The Corsair (1889)
  • The White Rose in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1890) 

Cecilie Fallesen (1889-1892)

• Nationality: Danish
• Previous Theatre: Det Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen
• Engaged Rank: Sujet
• Rôles:
  • Italienne in The Corsair (1889) 
  • Friend of Marguerite and The Spirit of Gluttony in Faust (1889) 
  • The Eight of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1890) 
  • Pas Comique in The Beauty of Ghent (1891)
  • Erato, Muse of Lyric Poetry in Sylvia (1892)

Vittoria Riccardi (1894)

• Nationality: Italian
• Previous Theatre: Wiener Hofoper, Vienna
• Engaged Rank: Sujet
• Rôles:
  • The Ambassadress in The Devil to Pay (1894) 

Anita Ramos (1895)

• Nationality: Spanish
• Previous Theatre: Teatro Real, Madrid
• Engaged Rank: Première danseuse
• Rôles:
  • Peggy in The Harvest Festival (1895) 
  • Hymen in Coppelia (1895) 

Maria Nadella (1897)

• Nationality: Italian
• Previous Theatres: The Alhambra Theatre and The Empire Theatre of Varieties, London
• Engaged Rank: Première danseuse
• Rôles:
  • Médora in The Corsair (1897) 
  • The Fairy Queen in The Enchanted Island (1897) 

Carolina Ferreira (1905-1907)

• Nationality: Portuguese
• Previous Theatre: The Alhambra Theatre, London
• Engaged Rank: Première danseuse
• Rôles:
  • Kathi in The Vivandiere (1905)
  • Giselle in Giselle (1905)
  • Naïla in Naïla (1906)
  • Beranger in Esmeralda (1907)