A ''danseur noble'' traditionally was a male ballet dancer who projected great nobility of character. Over the last century, the term has been used to define a male

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be either gender. The position is similar to that of ''Soloist (ballet), solois ...

who performs at the highest theatrical level combining grace with ability. Some use ''danseur noble'' as the masculine equivalent to a ''

Prima Ballerina A ballet dancer is a person who practices the 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. Ballet dancers ...

,'' or to refer to the male partner of a ballerina during a

pas de deux In ballet, a ( French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The ''pas de deux'' is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many well-known ...

Notable examples

Historical and retired

* Gaétan Vestris * Charles Le Picq *

Vaslav Nijinsky Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Nijinsky was celebrated for his virtuosity and f ...

Léonide Massine Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (), better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (15 March 1979), was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet, ''Les Présages'', and ...

Serge Lifar Serge Lifar (, ''Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar'') ( 15 December 1986) was a Ukrainian dancer, choreographer, and one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. Lifar was also a choreographer, director, writer, theoretician abou ...

* Adolph Bolm * Mikhail Mordkin * Anton Dolin *

Theodore Kosloff Theodore Kosloff (born Fyodor Mikhailovich Kozlov, ; January 22, 1882 – November 22, 1956) was a Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer, and film and stage actor. He was occasionally credited as Theodor Kosloff. Career Born in Moscow in ...

Pavel Gerdt Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt (), also known as Paul Gerdt (22 November 1844, near Saint Petersburg, Russia – 12 August 1917, in Vamaloki, Finland, Russian Republic), was the ''Premier Danseur Noble'' of the Mariinsky Ballet, Imperial Ballet, the Bol ...

* Vakhtang Chabukiani * Pyotr Gusev *

Asaf Messerer Asaf Mikhailovich Messerer (; 19 November 1903 – 7 March 1992) was a Soviet ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. He was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1919 he studied privately with Mikhail Mordkin, until Alexander Gorsky placed him in a cl ...

* Roman Jasiński * Igor Youskevitch * Vasily Tikhomirov *

Aleksey Yermolayev Aleksey Nikolayevich Yermolayev (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Ермола́ев; 12 December 1975) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher. He played an important role in the development of Russian b ...

Nikolai Fadeyechev Nikolai Borisovich Fadeyechev (27 January 193323 June 2020) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, teacher, and répétiteur of the Bolshoi Ballet. He was awarded People's Artist of the USSR in 1976. Biography Fadeyechev was bo ...

Sergei Filin Sergei Yurevitch Filin (; born 27 October 1970) is a Russian ballet dancer and the former artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater from 2011 through 2016. He is currently the Director of the Young Artists Ballet Program at the Bolshoi Theatre. ...

* Askold Makarov *

Konstantin Sergeyev Konstantin Mikhailovich Sergeyev (; – 1 April 1992) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, ballet master, pedagogue and choreographer for the Kirov Theatre. When the Kirov Ballet returned to Leningrad from Perm (where it had been moved durin ...

Erik Bruhn Erik Belton Evers Bruhn (3 October 1928 – 1 April 1986) was a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, artistic director, actor, and author. Early life Erik Bruhn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the fourth child and first son of Ellen (née Eve ...

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...

Edward Villella Edward Villella (born October 1, 1936) is an American ballet dancer and choreographer. He is frequently cited as America's most celebrated male dancer of ballet at the time. He has won numerous awards, including the Daytime Emmy Award for Out ...

* Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux * Nicolas Le Riche *

Carlos Acosta Carlos Yunior Acosta Quesada (born 2 June 1973) is a Cuban-British ballet director and retired dancer who is director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. He danced with many companies, including the English National Ballet, National Ballet o ...

* Jean Guizerix * Vladimir Vasiliev * Cyril Atanassoff *

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...

Henning Kronstam Henning Kronstam (June 29, 1934 – May 28, 1995) was a famous Danish ballet dancer, ballet master and company director. Life and career Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, he began training with the Royal Danish Ballet at the age of nine. He later ...

* Jacques d'Amboise *

Fernando Bujones Fernando Bujones (March 9, 1955 – November 10, 2005) was an American dancer. Born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Bujones is regarded as one of the finest male dancers of the 20th century and hailed as one of the greatest American male da ...

Robert Helpmann Sir Robert Murray Helpmann (né Helpman) (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (no ...

Michael Somes Michael George Somes CBE (28 September 191718 November 1994), was an English ballet dancer. He was a principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, London, and the frequent partner of Margot Fonteyn. Early years Somes was born in Horsley, Gloucestersh ...

* Reid Anderson *

Anthony Dowell Sir Anthony James Dowell (born 16 February 1943) is a retired British ballet dancer and a former artistic director of the Royal Ballet. He is widely recognized as one of the great ''danseurs nobles'' of the twentieth century. Early life and tr ...

* Wayne Eagling * José Martinez * Ivan Nagy *

Peter Martins Peter Martins (born 27 October 1946) is a Danish former ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and J ...

Laurent Hilaire Laurent Hilaire (; born 8 November 1962) is a French ballet dancer. Regarded as one of the greatest dancers to emerge from ballet over the past few decades, he was an '' étoile'' of the Paris Opera Ballet for 22 years. From 2011, he was the asso ...

Julio Bocca Julio Adrián Lojo Bocca (born March 6, 1967) is an Argentine ballet dancer. Bocca spent twenty years as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. From 2010 to 2018, he served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, adminis ...

* Nikolay Tsiskaridze * Manuel Legris * Johan Kobborg * Ethan Stiefel * Maris Liepa * Yuri Soloviev * Alexander Godunov * Irek Mukhamedov * Farukh Ruzimatov * Vladimir Malakhov

Current

Roberto Bolle Roberto Bolle (born 26 March 1975) is an Italian danseur. He is a principal dancer ''étoile'' at La Scala Theatre Ballet. Bolle also dances regularly as a guest artist with the world’s leading companies, including The Royal Ballet, the Ma ...

* José Manuel Carreño * David Hallberg * Marcelo Gomes * Vladimir Yaroshenko * Federico Bonelli * Sergei Polunin * Thiago Soares * Rupert Pennefather *

Igor Zelensky Igor Anatolyevich Zelensky (; born 13 July 1969) is a Russian ballet dancer. Early life Zelensky was born on 13 July 1969, in Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR. He was a principal at the Ma ...

* Mathieu Ganio * Stéphane Bullion * Evan McKie * Matthew Golding * Igor Kolb * Leonid Sarafanov * Vladimir Shklyarov * Friedemann Vogel * Vadim Muntagirov

References

{{Ballet Ballet occupations Ballet