August bournonville male dancers merry
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Setting Sail for Napoli!
Great news! While we still have season tickets available, single tickets to BTM shows are on sale TODAY. Visit our Napoli page to get your tickets to this sunny, adventurous production!
Not familiar with Napoli? You're not alone! This 1842 work by August Bournonville has only been performed by a few companies in the United States, so Ballet Theatre of Maryland is thrilled to present it as part of our mainstage season at Maryland Hall on October 26 & 27. Read on to learn a few things about this iconic Danish ballet.
Bournonville: A Brief History
Dancer, choreographer, and ballet director August Bournonville was born in Copenhagen in 1805. After early training with his father, Antoine, and Italian teacher Vincenzo Galeotti, August Bournonville studied in Paris with Auguste Vestris and Pierre Gardel.
A few years after his return to the Royal Danish Ballet, Bournonville created one of the earliest surviving ballets: La Sylphide (1836). Although Filippo Taglioni had first staged La Sylphide with his daughter Marie in the title role in 1832, Bournonville's interpretation of the story with music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold is the production that has survived to the present day.
The ballet Napoli came
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Bournonville At 200
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Choreographer’s Corner:
August Bournonville
By Claire Willett
August Bournonville – the Royal Danish Ballet’s most famous son and national legend – was virtually unknown in the United States until after World War II. But his joyful choreography, precise technique and exuberant artistry have made his works works beloved in the ballet canon for a century and a half. Oregon Ballet Theatre is thrilled to introduce our audiences to this iconic artist by presenting the work often considered the pinnacle of his buoyant, celebratory spirit: the third act of Napoli.
PART ONE
Life and Works
“Bournonville was a child of the Golden Age,” says Frank Andersen, former artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet and the artist who has been in residence at OBT to set Napoli on the company’s dancers. “He actually thought that all his ballets would die with him. Of course today,” he adds, “we know much better.” Born in Copenhagen in 1805, the son of a French ballet dancer, August Bournonville created over fifty works for the Royal Danish Ballet and developed his own unique ballet style known as the “Bournonville technique.” Though only twelve of his full-length works have survived (the best-known being La Sylphide and Napoli), they have become belo