Helena Spinacuta

Helena Spinacuta, née Pettersson (fl. 1796), was a Swedish stage actress and later acrobat and tightrope artist. she was married to the famous Italian (Venetian) acrobat Antonio Bartolomeo Spinacuta.

She was the daughter of an employee of the cathedral of Gothenburg: her brother Johan Pettersson was an actor, and she herself was engaged as a stage actor at the Gothenburg theatre Comediehuset. In 1784, she married the Italian artist Spinacuta, who performed as a guest artist at the theatre and who was at that time one of the most appreciated entertainers in Sweden. In the spring of 1786, the couple performed in Lund and Malmö, were they released the first hot air balloons in Sweden, followed by a performance in Copenhagen. In August 23, 1786, Helena Spinacuta debuted as an actor in Stockholm at Stenborg Theatre: she was engaged by the theatre as an actor, he as an acrobat to perform in the pauses. She performed in the part of Susanna in Susanna i Babylon. She made a remarkable success during her short time in Stockholm: poems where dedicated to her in the papers and the theatre direction was met with demands to have her repeat the role so that everyone may have the time to see her before she left the city, when her spouse announced that they would be leaving. Apparently, she made a great impression upon the public, and she is frequently described by her critics as extraordinary beautiful. From December 1786 to May 1787, the Spinacuta couple toured the Swedish country side with a group of actors from the Stenborg Theatre and her brother Johan: she acted, while her spouse performed dance, acrobatics and sang. They are last mentioned in Sweden 5 May 1787, are likely to have left the country thereafter.

In 1795, she was engaged with her spouse by the Ricketts company cirkus in Philadelphia in USA. In 1796, she performed a two-horse Roman riding act, which was referred to as “never before attempted by any woman in this country” [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ Olympians of the Sawdust Circle: A biographical dictionary of the nineteenth century American circus Compiled and Edited by William L. Slout Copyright © 2005 by William L. Slout. All rights reserved.

References

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