Episode Details

Maria Taglioni changed ballet forever. In the early nineteenth century she reinvented the art form, dancing en pointe not as a trick but as poetry, creating the illusion of weightlessness and giving birth to Romantic ballet. This lively, story-rich piece traces her extraordinary rise, her London triumphs at Her Majesty’s Theatre, and her surprisingly proper London life in Connaught Square, just off Marble Arch. From Parisian hysteria to West End adoration, this is the story of the woman who taught audiences across Europe how to believe in flight.