Marietta Baderna

Marietta Baderna Giannini or Maria Baderna was an Italian ballerina, born in 1828, died c. 1892. At age 16 she was the principal dancer at La Scala in Milan, when the unusual lithograph of her, surrounded by 16 poses, was published. Another critic, at the same performance, called her 'the heroine of the evening, and was more impressed:“As yet she is not perfect, but she has every promise of becoming eventually first-rate. She has sure and neat, if not astonishing, execution, she pirouettes well, though too often; points well, and not too often; uses her arms with classical grace, displays an abandon and degage manner that is perfectly charming, and dances with invariable artistic feeling. [...] Mdlle. Baderna was loudly, constantly, and deservedly applauded in her introductory pas, which was quaint and original, in the grand pas seul, in which she evinced the most graceful characteristics of her style, and the pas de deux with M. Croce, which was full of excellent poses, and replete with well considered and perfectly executed mechanical feats. Her success was decided, and she was recalled at the end of her pas de deux with M. Croce and after the fall of the curtain.” Baderna's success continued with a triumphant appearance at Drury Lane in front of Prince Albert:"A divertisement followed the opera, in the course of which Mademoiselle Marietta Baderna danced the Chachoucha, with such elegance and vivacity as to obtain an encore, which was joined in from the Royal box. After this the illustrious visitors retired, at half-past ten o'clock, leaving the new ballet, Spanish Gallantries, to be performed. The house was very fully attended." Baderna appeared in L'Odalisque and La Peri at Covent Garden. She was still active in the mid-1860s in Rio, but died around 1892.

For the 2025 edition of the Carnival parade of the Rio de Janeiro samba schools União da Ilha do Governador dedicated their performance to Baderna's memory, exalting her as the 'people's ballerina.'