Antoine Bournonville (19 May 1760 – 11 January 1843) was a French

ballet dancer A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who c ...

, active in the Royal Swedish Ballet and the

Royal Danish Ballet The Royal Danish Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Danish Theatre in Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world and originates from 1748, when the R ...

and eventually ballet master in the latter. He is considered to have played a great role in the development of the ballet in Scandinavia. He was the father of

August Bournonville August Bournonville (21 August 1805 – 30 November 1879) was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. He was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nep ...

Early life

Bournonville was the son of the actors Louis-Amable Bournonville and Jeanne Evrard, born as the

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

of his brother Guillame. He became the student of

Noverre Noverre (May 2, 1998 – 2012) was an American-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. Background Noverre was a bay horse bred by Darley Stud and raced by a sister operation, Godolphin Racing. He was sired by Rahy, out of th ...

in 1769, at the age of nine, and toured in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

before he was employed in the Royal Swedish Ballet at the

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera ( sv, Kungliga Operan) is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the center of Sweden's capital Stockholm in the borough of Norrmalm, on the eastern sid ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

with his sister Julie Alix de la Fay in 1782.

Career

Sweden

Bournonville was premier dancer and ballet instructor at the

in Stockholm until 1792. During his time in Sweden, he was described as beautiful as Apollo: "His appearance was that of a true Apollo. On top of that he had a form of virtuosity in all kinds of dance, which he used with the finest taste". King

Gustav III of Sweden Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what ...

was at one point so enthusiastic about his performance and beauty that he called out to him to untie the ribbon of his hair so that he could see his loose hair fly during his

pirouette In dance and gymnastics, a turn is a rotation of the body about the vertical axis. It is usually a complete rotation of the body, although quarter (90°) and half (180°) turns are possible for some types of turns. Multiple, consecutive turns are ...

.Gunilla Roempke (1994). Gunilla Roempke. ed. Vristens makt – dansös i mätressernas tidevarv (The power of the ankle - dancer in the epoch of the royal mistresses) Stockholm: Stockholm Fischer & company. His favourite student and dancing partner in Sweden was

Charlotte Slottsberg Charlotte (Gustava Charlotta) Slottsberg (29 May 1760 – 29 May 1800) was a Swedish ballerina. She was one of the first native members of the Royal Swedish Ballet. She was also known as a courtesan and as the controversial mistress of the ...

, with whom he made a successful pair in the ballets. It was Antoine Bournonville himself who asked to have her as his partner, after he recognized her talent as an artist and, in 1784, by his own initiative gave her a part in ''Les Meunieres Provencaux'', which is considered to have been the starting point of Slottberg's true maturity as an artist. Charlotte Slottsberg was said to have been infatuated by his beauty, which at one occasion made her lover,

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

to scream at Bournonville in his jealousy. He was also active as an actor, a singer and a choreographer. During his stay in Sweden he wrote the ballets ''Les Meuniers provençaux'' (1785) and '' Les Pêcheurs'' (1789).

Denmark

He left Sweden in 1792 after the assassination of king

and was employed at the Royal Danish Ballet in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

in Denmark after a guest performance there. His favourite dance partner in Denmark was Marie Christine Björn. In 1816–1823, he was the ballet master of the

Private life

Bournonville was married first to the Danish dancer Mariane Jensen, second to his Swedish housekeeper Lovisa Sundberg (the mother of

) and also had a child with the Danish dancer Karen Olsen. He died on 11 January 1843 and is buried in

Asminderød Church Asminderød Church ( Danish: Asminderød Kirke) is a parish church in Asminderød, now part of Fredensborg, Fredensborg Municipality som 40 km north of central Copenhagen, Denmark. History A small Romanesque church was built at the site in the fi ...

yard in Fredensborg.

Early life

Career

Sweden

Denmark

Private life

References

Further reading