The Taglioni of the North.

Imperious and formidable, Katti Lanner was a famous ballerina, choreographer and dancing mistress who taught many English ballerinas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Her career lasted until almost until she died at seventy-eight! Prima ballerina Phyllis Beddells recalled 77-year old Katti Lanner yelling at the corps de ballet if there was the slightest defect in their work or if they were out of line. Lanner didn't realise that she could be heard by the audience in the front.

Born in 1845 in Vienna, Lanner was the daughter of the great dancing teacher Josef Lanner. She began dancing at eight and trained at the Vienna Court Opera where she had lessons by Pietro Campilli and Isadore Carey. When she was 16, the young ballerina obtained her first starring role in the pas de deux in the ballet, Angelica. The great ballerinas Fanny Elssler and Fanny Cerritto were impressed with her dancing and Lanner was soon given more starring roles, for example, as Myrtha the Queen of the Wilis in Giselle in 1852. Famous Danish choreographer Bournonville chose her to play the leading role in the ballet Der Toreador.

After her beloved mother's and brother's deaths, Lanner decided to leave Vienna and went on to have a glittering career in Germany, where she was complimented by the King of Bavaria, New York and Lisbon, where the king gave her diamonds. She was nicknamed the 'Taglioni of the North' because of her similarity to the splendid Marie. She formed her own ballet company, taught ballet in Hamburg and produced ballets but she is known mainly for her ballets in England today.

Chosen to be the dancing mistress at the National School of Dancing in England when she was almost 50, Lanner settled in London with her husband Johann Geraldini and their three daughters, Sofia, Katharine and Albertina. Unfortunately, the marriage was not happy and he returned to Vienna. Apparently, Lanner preferred the Neapolitan dancer Giuseppe Venuto de Francesco and their relationship caused some scandal.

In the late 1880's, Lanner began teaching ballerinas and producing spectacular ballets at the Empire  Theatre in Leicester Square, such as Rose d'Amour about a fairy escaping a malignant elf who is rescued by Cupid. This included a Hungarian wedding dance and a Chinese dance of tea-flowers. At the end of the ballet, all the flowers were massed into a huge bouquet. The great C. Wilhelm's costume designs also featured in this ballet and several others.

Watching Cleopatra in 1889 must have been a delight! Maria Cavallazi starred and French composer Herve wrote the music for this amazing production. According to Ivor Guest, the spectacle was 'magnificent indeed, with the stage filled with a colourful throng of Roman soldiery, Nubian's, Egyptians and Greek slaves'. The Girl I Left Behind Me in 1893 about a young soldier who joined a Highland regiment in Burma also stunned audiences with its beautiful scenes. A critic in the Sketch called it 'a carnival of colour, of movement, of gaiety'.

One fun ballet that Lanner produced was Katrina in 1894. This featured ballerinas 'dressed up to represent cats in their nightly flings on the tiles' according to Pick-Me-Up magazine. The ballet starred Miss Ada Vincent as Princess Frou-Frou, a fairy cat, and Miss Lizzie Vincent as Tom Grey, a cat bridegroom.  You can view pictures of scenes from the ballet here and see why some of the critics were especially impressed by the cat costumes. Lanner loved cats herself - she had five of them!

Lanner died peacefully in 1908 on a Sunday morning at 9:00. She didn't know that her faithful dog predeceased her by a few hours. Many of her colleagues and her pupils attended her funeral and she is buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

A Good Place To Meet Potential Husbands?

William R. Martin, the founder of men's clothing store Rogers, Peet & co, was concerned. He watched the hordes of young working women settling in New York and worried about their dismal lodgings and boarding houses. Where could these shopgirls and clerks find nice, suitable young men to marry?

He decided to build a residence on Hudson and West 12th streets which would provide them with respectable lodgings so that they could entertain 'desirable, young men' in the parlour, and he called it The Trowmart Inn after his son Trowbridge, who had tragically met an early death. Women who stayed at the inn had to meet certain conditions. They had to be under 35 and earn less than $15.00 per week. A bed in one of the 228 dorm-like rooms cost as little as 50 cents while a more private room could be obtained for $4.50 per week, including breakfast and dinner. The young women also had an ironing room on each floor and laundry was also provided. There were six parlours where the girls could entertain men and there was no curfew, but men were not allowed upstairs.  The young women also had a library and a full-time nurse was in attendance.  Dances were held three times a week.

Even though The Trowbridge Inn sounds as though it was nicely decorated with muslin curtains and solid antique oak furniture, there were many complaints about the small rooms.  One 21-year old office clerk told Munsey's Magazine that the Trowbridge and similar residences had narrow rooms with bad lighting and 'mincy wardrobes.'

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Lemon Wax and Cameraderie in New York. Part One

(Katharine House, NYC, Wikimapia) 

Enza and Laura, two young ambitious seamstresses in The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani are delighted to find rooms at the relatively luxurious Milbank House in New York. This residence for single working women, Trigiani writes, was 'in the middle of a wide, tree-lined block of opulent homes, anchored by a lavish Episcoap church on the corner of Fifth Avenue and the charming Patchin Place houses across Sixth Avenue on the other, this block had character and whimsy, a rare combination in New York City at the turn of the progressive century.' This double brownstone with its formal library, parlour and 'deep garden' was a much nicer alternative to the many cheap and nasty lodgings which were the common lot of struggling girls away from home. I read that one shopgirl complained that there were 'six of us in the garret!' Milbank House was reasonably priced and breakfast and dinner were even included in the rent. . Enza loves her beautiful room bathed in sunlight at Milbank House with its fresh scent of lemon wax.

But 'more important than all these lovely features of gracious living,' according to Trigiani, ' was the camaraderie of the young residents, who aspired to better lives on the wings of their talent and creativity. Finally, Laura and Enza were with like-minded peers, who understood their feelings and drive'.

Milbank House, opened in 1919, was one of several houses run by the Ladies' Christian Union which decided to start building comfortable residences for single working women as far back as 1860  Seamstresses, shopgirls and factory workers were flocking to the city in search of better lives and they were often reduced to extremely poor living conditions and in serious danger of being compromised. Another house owned by the Ladies' Christian Union was Katharine House. This also had a library, a parlour and sewing machines for the residents.  There was even a relief fund to help the sick go to hospital and those who had trouble paying for meals.

Katharine House only closed in 2000.  According to a New York Times article in 1997, many of the women living there were extremely pleased to find it.  One ballerina had paid $600.00 a month for a 'rotten deal,' so she was amazed by the 'baby grand piano in the second-floor lounge, a terrace for summer socializing and maid service.' They didn't mind the rather Victorian rules - for example, men weren't allowed in the bedrooms and had to leave the beau parlours at 11;00 p.m.

You can read more about Katharine House here. (At first, it sounded rather good, but after reading Jeremiah's article and the comments, I am not so sure!)