August Bournonville (1805-1879). Danish dancer, choreographer and ballet master

August Bournonville studied ballet with his father Antoine in Denmark and then in Paris under Auguste Vestris and Pierre Gardel, two of the leading ballet masters from the previous generation. Paris inspired him and he was torn between staying there and returning to Denmark. It was his own version of La Sylphide in 1836 that set the seal on his future and that of Danish ballet. As artistic director of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen for almost 50 years, Bournonville set a tradition and style that was particular to Denmark alone. He created over 50 ballets, a few of which have been preserved in an almost unbroken tradition since the 19th Century. Although originally influenced by the ephemeral Romantic ideals born in Paris, his work gradually developed its own characteristics of gaiety, harmony and ease of execution, as well as religious conviction, which were completely different from the French inspired developments in Russia. In fact, Bournonville disliked the opulence of Russian ballet as much as Marius Petipa disliked what he saw as the provincialism of the Danish style. Nevertheless, it is interesting that these two giants of 19th-Century choreography developed such different approaches from the same Romantic source. Interestingly, in the next century, George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton also appeared to take very separate paths from a shared starting point.