His mother, Victorine Grasseau, was a tragic actress and teacher of drama, while his father, Jean-Antoine Petipa, was among the most renowned Ballet Masters and pedagogues in Europe.

This coincided with a need to find a strong male lead for the Russian ballet prima ballerina Yelena Andreyanova, (who was the mistress of the Director of the Imperial Theaters, Alexandr Gedeonov).

The following season Petipa and his father staged a revival of Mazilier's 1840 ballet Le Diable amoureux (The Devil in Love), which premiered under the title Satanella on 22 February [O.S.

9 January] 1855 Petipa presented his first original ballet in over six years, a ballet-divertissement titled L’Étoile de Grenade (The Star of Granada), for which he collaborated for the first time with the composer Cesare Pugni.

All of Petipa's works during this period were tailored especially for the talents of his wife Maria, who performed the principal rôles to considerable acclaim, and soon was named Prima ballerina to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres.

The work proved to be a success equal to that of The Pharaoh's Daughter, with its series of fantastical tableaux set under-water and on an enchanted isle, as well as the ballet's final Grand divertissement celebrating the many peoples of the Russian Empire.

Though Arthur Saint-Léon was by title and technicality Petipa's superior, the two men were viewed as equals by the critics and balletomanes of the day, and would rival one another with splendid productions throughout the 1860s.

The ballet featured the Pas de Vénus, which was considered to be among Petipa's greatest masterpieces of classical choreography, with the ballerina D'or executing five pirouettes during her piqué turns in rapid succession.

Each new season required that Petipa create a new multi-act Grand ballet, that he choreograph the dance sections for various operas, and that he prepare galas and divertissements for court performances, royal nuptials, etc.

This era coincided with an important change: upon the retirement of Ludwig Minkus in 1886, the director Ivan Vsevolozhsky abolished the official post of Ballet Composer in an effort to diversify the music supplied for new works.

Petipa presented his colossal grand ballet set in ancient Rome La Vestale in 1888, which was staged for the benefit performance of the visiting Italian ballerina Elena Cornalba.

considered the work to not even be a ballet at all, with far too much emphasis on spectacle, something made all the more unsuccessful since the ballerina's role was reduced to a Grand Pas de deux in the final scene.

It was during this time that Enrico Cecchetti, the great Italian dancer and teacher, began to assist Lev Ivanov in substituting for Petipa in the staging of ballets and rehearsals.

Petipa returned to choreography from his long infirmity with the one-act Le Réveil de Flore (The Awakening of Flora), set to the music of Riccardo Drigo.

In the winter of 1895 Petipa presented lavish revivals of his 1889 Le Talisman, and Saint-Léon's 1864 The Little Humpbacked Horse (as La Tsar-Demoiselle), both with Legnani in the principal rôles.

For the celebrations held at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in honor of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, Petipa presented the one-act ballet to Drigo's music, Le Perle, which proved to be the greatest success during the gala of 29 May [O.S.

Le Perle was truly a ballet à grand spectacle: based on the un-staged danced scene La Pérégrina from Verdi's opera Don Carlos, which was to have been choreographed by Petipa's brother Lucien.

For the occasion, Petipa created one of the most lavish ballets he ever staged: Bluebeard, based on the Perrault fairytale to the music of Pyotr Schenk, was given its premiere on 20 December [O.S.

Many critics felt that the ballet was merely a gargantuan excuse for spectacle and dances, something made all the more apparent with the spectacular showcasing of Pierina Legnani in the principal role of Ysaure.

The Temple of the Future completed the scene with the Pas de deux éléctrique performed by Legnani and Nikolai Legat to a tremendous ovation from the audience.

7 January] 1898 the nearly eighty-year-old Petipa presented one of his greatest ballets, Raymonda, set in Hungary during the Middle Ages to the music of Alexander Glazunov, which premiered to great success.

Petipa's Pas classique hongrois from the last act of the ballet would go on to be one of his most celebrated and enduring excerpts, with the challenging choreography he lavished onto Legnani (who danced the title rôle) becoming one of the ultimate tests of the classical ballerina.

With all of this, Petipa's rocky relationship with the new director of the Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Telyakovsky, appointed to the position in 1901, served as a catalyst to the Ballet Master's end.

But even at the age of eighty-three, and suffering from the constant pain brought on by a severe case of the skin disease pemphigus, the old Maestro showed no signs of slowing down, much to Telyakovsky's chagrin.

Petipa was further frustrated by the fact that the Imperial Theatre's newly appointed régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev was being paid large sums to travel throughout the Russian Empire and stage many of the ageing Ballet Master's works.

Le Miroir magique was given scathing reviews in the press[citation needed], and was considered to be an all-around failure, though Petipa's choreography was not mentioned among the criticisms.

Not long afterwards rumour began to circulate that Petipa was to be replaced, and Telyakovsky even made an announcement to the Stock Trade Bulletin, a St. Petersburg newspaper, that "...the ballet company will have to get used to a new Balletmaster – Alexander Gorsky.

Petipa was invited in March 1904 to stage The Pharaoh's Daughter at the Paris Opéra (the Palais Garnier) by relatives of Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, who wrote the ballet's libretto, but his health prevented him from it.

The minister of the Imperial Court, the aristocrat Baron Fredericks gave Petipa the title "Ballet Master for life", and granted him a yearly pension of 9,000 roubles.

Petipa noted his final composition on 17 January 1905 in his diaries: a variation to the music of Cesare Pugni for the Prima ballerina Olga Preobrajenska from the old ballet La Danseuse en voyage.