Giuseppina Bozzacchi

Giuseppina Bozzacchi (23 November 1853 – 23 November 1870) was an Italian ballerina, noted for creating the role of Swanhilda in Léo Delibes' ballet Coppélia at the age of 16 while dancing for the Paris Opera Ballet. Bozzacchi, who was born in Milan, had come to Paris to study with Mme Dominique. The choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon and the director of the Académie Royale de Musique, Émile Perrin, had been searching for a suitable Swanhilda, after deciding that none of the ballerinas previously considered – Léontine Beaugrand and Angelina Fioretti – were suitable, while Adèle Grantzow, the favourite ballerina of Saint-Léon, had started to prepare the role with choreography in 1868 but then fell seriously ill. In 1869 they even asked the composer, Léo Delibes, to seek out a suitable Swanhilda on his trip to Italy.