Pepita de Oliva

Josefa Durán y Ortega ( 1830–10 March 1871), known by the stage name Pepita de Oliva, was a Romani Spanish dancer who performed across Europe, popularizing Spanish flamenco dancing and costumes. Despite her official marriage with her dance teacher Juan Antonio Gabriel de la Oliva in 1851, the following year she established a partnership with the British diplomat Lionel Sackville-West with whom she had five children. Her daughter Victoria gave birth to the English writer Vita Sackville-West, who in 1937 published a biography of her grandmother titled Pepita.

Biography

Born in Málaga in about 1830, Josefa Durán y Ortega was officially the daughter of Pedro Durán and Catalina Ortega although it was rumoured her father was the celebrated nobleman Francisco de Borja Téllez-Girón y Pimentel, the 10th Duke of Osuna.

In July 1852, she made her début at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris where she received a tremendous ovation and was showered with flowers. The following month she added the "Olé" to her repertoire, receiving even more attention than the star ballerina of the Paris Opera.

In May 1858, her first child with Sackville-West was born in Granada. She then joined him in Germany where they lived in Heidelberg and Hackenfeldt before settling in Turin where Sackville-West had been posted. Her second child, Victoria, was born in September 1862.