Marius Petipa (born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa on 11 March 1818 in Marseille, Kingdom of France) was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. His mother was an actress and drama teacher, while his father was a ballet master and teacher.
Petipa is noted for his long career as Premier Maître de Ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position he held from 1871 until 1903. He created over fifty ballets, some of which have survived in versions either faithful to, inspired by, or reconstructed from the original: The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862); Don Quixote (1869); La Bayadère (1877); Le Talisman (1889); The Sleeping Beauty (1890); etc.