Gisella Caccialanza

Caccialanza was born to Italian American parents in San Diego on September 17, 1914.[1][2][3] She studied ballet under the tutelage of Italian teacher Giovanni Rosi, who recommended that she venture to Milan, Italy and continue her studies there.[4] In 1925, Caccialanza was taken to La Scala to receive advanced training in ballet.[4][5] During her three-year studying period at the opera house, she won a bronze, silver and gold medal during her final examinations at the end of the year.[5] Caccialanza earned the awareness of ballet dancer Enrico Cecchetti, and he spent his final years improving her ability;[5] he made her his goddaughter at her confirmation ceremony,[4] after he was granted permission for it by the Pope.[5]

In 1928, Caccialanza returned to the United States.[4] She was encouraged by Cecchetti to follow his routines, rather than certain American teachers whom he considered incompetent.[5] Caccialanza worked with Viennese choreographer in ballet, musicals and vaudeville Albertina Rasch,[4] on a three-year contract.[5] She toured the United States in Rasch's dance troupes.[3] This included performances in vaudeville houses, in motion picture prologues, the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and Radio City Music Hall. Caccialanza performed five times a day at Radio City Music Hall, and ballet dancer Serge Lifar persuaded her to audition for a new school run by George Balanchine.[5]

She immediately earned a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, and impressed the faculty with the training she had received from Cecchetti.[5] Caccialanza became a charter member of the company in 1934, and performed in the major cities of the United States.[2] She performed under Balanchine in the ballets Serenade in 1934, Le baiser de la fée in 1937,[3] the second ballerina in the premiere of Ballet Imperial in 1941 under the employ of the New Opera Company,[4][5] the lead dancer in the full-length American premiere of The Nutcracker with the San Francisco Ballet at the San Francisco Opera House in 1944,[2][6] and The Four Temperaments in 1946.[3] Caccialanza also danced in the musical films The Goldwyn Follies in 1938, and On Your Toes the following year with choreography undertaken by Balanchine.[2][4] When the ballet did not perform, she appeared with the touring group Ballet Caravan,[4] and danced in the premieres of Harlequin for President, Promenade, and The Soldier and the Gypsy in 1936,[3] and at Los Angeles' Philharmonic Auditorium.[2]

In 1941, the American Ballet and Ballet Caravan had worked together in a tour of Latin America,[4] and Caccialanza danced a pas de deux at the New York headquarters of the United Service Organizations, and spoke at a rally to encourage scrap metal collecting.[5] She was offered a role of Laurey in Oklahoma! for the Theatre Guild's road company in New Haven in October 1943, which she turned down to honor a prior partnership.[5] Caccialanza later joined the Ballet Society, and danced with the San Francisco Ballet until the birth of her son in 1953.[4] She later taught and coached at the school.[3][4] A collection of Caccialanza's correspondence with Cecchetti was published as Letters From the Maestro in 1971.[2][4]

She was married to American choreographer Lew Christensen from 1941 until his death from cancer in 1984,[3] and they had a son, Chris, who went on to be a conductor.[4] Caccialanza died at Seton Medical Center, Daly City on July 16, 1998,[1][6] after a series of strokes.[6]

Variety magazine called her "a premier ballerina of the 1930s",[6] and The New York Times referred to her as "a major American ballerina".[4] The Dance, Music, Recorded Sound, and Theatre Divisions of the New York Public Library holds a collection of letters and manuscripts relating to her life from 1926 to 1972.[7]

• Gisella Caccialanza at the Internet Broadway Database