Twelve of the best Ballerinas of all Time

Pas de Quatre

The Daily Telegraph has just published 12 of the greatest ballerinas of all time 8 Dec 2015. It has chosen Pavlova, Ulanova, Markova, Fonteyn, Nerina,  Ananiashvili, Guillem, Bussell, Lopatkina, Rojo, Cojocaru and Osipova. I wouldn't argue about Pavlova or Fonteyn or indeed Cojocaru and Osipova if we restricted the choice to dancers of our own time.  I am amazed that the Telegraph omitted La Camargo or the four great ballerinas of the early 19th century shown in the illustration above, namely Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni or indeed Fanny Elssler.

The Royal Ballet set this challenge:

12 of the greatest ballerinas according to @Telegraph: https://t.co/QmhKlSOqYU (Who have they missed?) ^C pic.twitter.com/JdZXVcRaaG

— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 8, 2015

Here's my response:

@TheRoyalBallet @Telegraph Taglioni. Grisi, Elssler, Grshn, Karsavina, Tallchief, Seymour, Haydee, Fracci, Sibley, Radius, Camargo Jeanmaire

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) December 9, 2015

Others tweeps have suggested Zakharova (mmm maybe after her performance as Marguerite  on Sunday see Lady of the Camellias Streamed from Moscow 7 Dec 2015), Núñez, Yuanyouan Tan, Pliestetskaya (definitely), Seymour (my choice), Shearer (maybe and perhaps also May),  McBride, Farrell, Kirkland, Gregory. Makarova and Plisetskaya, Alonso, Cuthbertson and so on.