Bianca Bennardi Albrecht

Bianca Fosca is Italian, at least of ancestry. Her name is Bianca Fosca Bennardi and, although from a Florentine family, was born in Berlin. But the elements are, on this point, a little confused, all the official documents having been destroyed during the civil war, her husband will declare her native of Florence. In the meantime, and as it should be in a family dedicated to the circus, Bianca, child of the ball, learns a specialty useful for the show. It will be classical dance and the track will be its first theater. She also dances a lot with her brother, William who will be called Willy as soon as his talent as a tap dancer is recognized.

Bianca Bennardi meets, during a tour of Russia, an officer of the Czar, Constantin von Albrecht, who kidnaps her, on horseback, in the purest tradition. But war comes. The officer was an aviator in the Tsarist army and married the dancer in 1915. In 1916 Constantine Albrecht was shot down at the controls of his plane and was seriously injured. The revolution arrives and the couple flees with an airplane engine, the sale of which provides the necessary subsidies. In 1919, they would be in Odessa, in 1920, in Istanbul.

The Albrecht family, stranded in Turkey, have nothing to live on except the talent and energy of Bianca who creates a ballet troupe. She dances there, regulates the choreographies and engages her husband, who although handicapped by the after-effects of his injury plays his role thanks to a presence which the photographs still testify to. This Théâtre des Petits Champs gives performances which allow a certain number of these Russian talents in exile to survive. In 1923, the family arrived for the first time in France. Les Fosca, Bianca and Constantin, have put on a number that is touring all over Europe. In 1930, the Albrecht family settled as permanently as possible in Paris.