The Colonna Troupe

A carte-de-visite portrait of the four dancers who performed an early form of the can-can in London and Paris in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Their peculiar and energetic quadrille, although it notoriously involved some high-kicks, was quite different from the meringue petticoats can-can of the 1890s.

Seated at the centre of the group in front is Mlle Colonna (born Amelia Newman), who gave her name to the troupe. The girl seated in the window behind her is ‘Wiry Sal’ (born Sara Wright). The girl standing on the right is Laura Gerrish. The fourth dancer has yet to be identified.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.

A pencilled inscription verso in a period hand reads; ‘Mad.lle Sara & Troupe’ with an illegible word added above the ampersand in another hand.