Marie Polly Cuninghame (ca. 1785,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

– 9 April 1837,

De Bilt De Bilt () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and town in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht, Netherlands. It had a population of in . De Bilt houses the headquarters of the Royal Netherland ...

), known after her marriage as Polly de Heus, was a Dutch ballet dancer. After ballet training in

she danced briefly in

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

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. She was then contracted by the

Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam The Stadsschouwburg (; Dutch: ''Municipal Theatre'') of Amsterdam is a theatre building on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The building was built in 1894 in the neo-Renaissance style, and was the home of the National Ballet and Opera ...

, where she danced from 1801 until 1823, making this period a high point for ballet in Amsterdam.Marjo Barthels, Cuninghame, Marie Polly, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/cuninghame 3/01/2014 In 1807 she married a widower and manufacturer 20 years her senior, Hendricus de Heus.

References

1780s births 1837 deaths Dutch ballerinas French ballerinas Entertainers from Bordeaux 19th-century Dutch ballet dancers {{ballet-bio-stub