Bournonville’s enchanted love story of a young man and a woodland fairy is paired with his Divertissements, a series of show-stopping and rarely performed excerpts from his sizable repertoire.
Dancer, choreographer, and ballet master August Bournonville (1805–1879) directed the Royal Danish Ballet for nearly 50 years. Born in Copenhagen, Bournonville began his dance training at age 8 under his father, the acclaimed dancer and ballet master Antoine Bournonville. He later studied in Italy and France, and in 1829, after appearances at the Paris Opera and in London, he returned home and joined the Royal Danish Ballet as a soloist and choreographer. His ballets reflect the 18th-century French style of his training with distinctive Danish charm—colorful, warm, and cheerful depictions of ordinary people. Bournonville created a national style of dancing that has been carefully preserved by the Royal Danish Ballet and passed on to ballet companies around the world.
THE BOURNONVILLE METHOD
The Bournonville style is characterized by expressive mime and a quality of effortlessness and lightness—a quiet upper body juxtaposed with buoyant jumps and fleet footwork. The port de bras (carriage of the arms) is low and rounded, gesturing toward the audience to welcome them into the production. This style is extremely challenging for dancers, as most ballet choreography allows dancers to lift their arms above their heads while jumping to help them lift off the ground.
In Bournonville’s ballets, the transitions between steps are smooth and even, and no step is given more emphasis than the others. Dancers always travel across the stage by dancing, never by simply running or walking. Many of his ballets end in big, sailing leaps downstage with arms extending forward as if to embrace.
While the ballerina reigned supreme during the height of Romantic ballet in France and elsewhere in Europe, Bournonville championed the role of the male dancer by creating challenging, virtuosic male solos. But he still expected the women to be able to execute the same steps as the men. For example, Jockey Dance, one of his Divertissements, can be performed by either two men or two women.
