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

ballet dancer A ballet dancer is a person who practices the Art (skill), art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. B ...

and

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

, active in the

Royal Swedish Ballet The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian ...

and the

Royal Danish Ballet The Royal Danish Ballet ( Danish: ''Den Kongelige 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 a ...

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 ne ...

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 Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

of his brother Guillame. He became the student of Jean Georges Noverre in 1769, at the age of nine, and toured in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

before he was employed in the Royal Swedish Ballet at the

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

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

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 King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he s ...

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, 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. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

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 ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

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 Churchyard in Fredensborg.

Early life

Career

Sweden

Denmark

Private life

References

Further reading