Blasis Carlo de, *4 November 1795 Naples, †15 January 1878 Cernobbio (northern Italy), son of composer Francesco Antonio, Italian dancer, teacher and choreographer. Student of P. Gardel. Between 1816 and 1837, he performed on stages in Paris, London and Italian theatres. He worked continuously at La Scala in Milan under the direction of S. Vigan as a principal dancer, and from 1819 also as a choreographer. In 1837, he became director of the ballet school at La Scala. As a result of his reform of the curriculum and teaching methods, the school, known as the Imperial-Regia Accademia di Ballo, was for several decades the main centre for the training of European dancers. After leaving the academy in 1851, he continued his teaching activities at his own school, later working as a choreographer and teacher in many European cities, including Warsaw in 1856–57, Lisbon in 1857–58, Paris in 1859–60, and Moscow in 1860–63. He published two treatises: Traité elémentaire théorique et pratique de l’art de la danse (Paris, 1820) and The Code of Terpsichore (London, 1828), in which he organised and codified the achievements of ballet to date and laid the foundations for a modern system of training dancers. His theoretical works have been translated into many languages.
