Louise Marquet
(1830-1890)

Born in Tours in 1830, Louise Marquet's career as a dancer at the Paris Opéra lasted nearly forty years. Her first contract began on 8 January 1841; she made her debut as a sujet ten years  later dancing the role of Fenella in La muette de Portici. She retired in 1879, shortly after creating the role of the Princess in Mérante's Yedda. After leaving the Opéra, she took over the deportment class at the Conservatoire, and later became maîtresse de ballet at the Opéra-Comique.

Among the many roles she danced during her long career were the Black Fairy in the première of La filleule des fées (1849), which starred Carlotta Grisi as Ysaure; one  of the Seven Vices in Orfa (1852): the High Priestess in Aelia et Mysis (1853); Princess Bathilde in Les elfes (1856); and the wicked fairy Hamza in Marie Taglioni's Le papillon (1860), which starred Emma Livry.