Miss Malaga
Jeanne-Francoise-Catherine Bénéfand , known as Miss Malaga (born with Paris the January 18th 1786, died in Paris the September 22nd 1852) is a dancer of French cord, girl of Joseph Bénéfand and Catherine Dacy. His/her mother was a dancer considered in the troop of the Large-Dancers of the King about 1785.
Young Miss Malaga begins in 1796 with the Mareux Theater from Paris, which his/her mother directs. The company is flourishing until the beginning of the next century but, in front of the multiplication of the rival troops, it owes expatrier and to seek fortune in province. Thus one finds Miss Malaga in North of France and with Brussels, where she dances in 1803 and 1804.
Of return to Paris, Miss Malaga installs a hut with the Boulevard of the Temple, on the ground where one will build the Circus-Olympic later. But the imperial decree of 1807 obliges it to close this scene of fortune and to find the ways of the province. Miss Malaga returns to Brussels in November 1809, in company of other tightrope walkers, to give a single representation, with the Gardens of Saint-Georges.
Victor Fournel quotes, about the dancer, the following anecdote: “ At the time of a festival given to Versailles, in 1814, in front of the combined sovereigns, it carried out a rise on the cord roide, with two hundred feet above the water part Swiss, in company of an acrobat of the other sex. This representation was unhappy. The man lost balance and committed suicide. As for the girl of the Malaga, it failed to share the same fate, but it had the presence of mind to be caught up with one hand to the cord and to remain there suspended during more than twenty minutes which the rescue lasted”.
Miss Malaga dies in Paris at the age of sixty-six years, in the total destitution.
| Random links: | Revolt on the Moon | David Raynr | Park of Meubliers | Gholhak | David Morris Lee | Réduction_de_bouleau |