Rosina Galli

Rosina Galli (1892 – April 30, 1940) was an Italian ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet mistress, and dance teacher. After early years in Italy, she moved to the US, where she was associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Prima ballerina at La Scala Theatre Ballet, and the Chicago Ballet, she was also the première danseuse at the Teatro di San Carlo and the Metropolitan Opera.

Biography

Galli was born in Naples, where her father was a lawyer. She studied dance at the Teatro di San Carlo's ballet school, becoming the company's première danseuse at the age of 14. When she was offered the première danseuse position at La Scala Theatre Ballet, the family moved to Milan. She debuted in 1910, at the age of eighteen, dancing in Pietro Micca and Ballo Excelsior of Luigi Manzotti.

In 1911, her father and two brothers escorted Galli to Genoa, from where Galli and her mother proceeded to Chicago, US. Galli performed first as soloist, and then as prima ballerina of the Chicago Ballet. In 1913, she was hired by the Metropolitan Opera House. Though she sported a petite figure, characterized as elfish, Galli demonstrated a rigorous technique and performed powerful pirouettes, continuing to dance there until 1931. Her studies in America were under Luigi Albertieri.

In 1919, she began teaching dance at the Met, also serving as ballet mistress until 1935. Helen Tamiris, who formed the School of American Dance in 1930, was a pupil under Galli. Her expanded responsibilities included choreography, and in that respect, Galli is credited for over 100 offerings at the Met, such as Carmen (1924), La traviata (1925), and Merry Mount (1934).

It was at the Met where Galli met her future husband, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, former superintendent at La Scala and director of the Met since 1908. Initially she was his mistress; they married in 1930 at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. When her husband retired in 1935, the couple returned to Italy, residing at a villa on Lake Maggiore. She died in Milan on April 30, 1940. Gatti, 23 years older, died the following September.