Ballet master and choreographer Marius Petipa (1818-1910) created over fifty ballets at the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres.  Many of his ballets are considered classics today, works such as Don Quixote, La Bayadere, and Sleeping Beauty (with a score composed for the ballet by Tchaikovsky) .  He also reworked other classics such as Giselle, Coppelia, and Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov).

As an ephemeral art, dance choreography vanishes over time when undocumented.  There were no video cameras in Petipa’s time.  Fortunately, Petipa’s choreography was documented in dance notation, but some of the notations are incomplete, leaving the details to fading memories and interpretations. 

What versions of the classic ballets are truly Petipa’s?  Read more in this New York Times article by Alastair Macaulay.