August Bournonville

August Bournonville (1805–1879) was a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, and balletmaster who created a distinctive style and repertory for the Royal Danish Ballet.

Bournonville method: A ballet training system emphasizing buoyant jumps, quick footwork, épaulement, and understated upper-body movement. The method codifies the technique Bournonville developed for dancers at the Danish court.
La Sylphide (Bournonville): Bournonville's 1836 ballet about a Scottish farmer enchanted by a supernatural sylph. It is his best-known surviving full-length ballet and a central test of the style.
Antoine Bournonville: A French-born dancer and balletmaster who worked in Scandinavia and was August Bournonville's father. His career brought French ballet training into the family and environment where August began dancing.
Épaulement: A ballet technique that coordinates the shoulders and torso with the head and limbs to create expressive three-dimensional movement. Bournonville's restrained torso and angled shoulders shape the clarity of his dancers' lines.
Bournonville Festival: A Copenhagen festival presenting works and traditions associated with August Bournonville. The festival makes the repertory a public focus of performance and preservation.
Royal Danish Ballet: A Copenhagen ballet company founded in 1748 and known for preserving Bournonville's repertory and style. Bournonville spent most of his career shaping this company as dancer, choreographer, and balletmaster.
Napoli (ballet): A three-act ballet by Bournonville set in Naples, first performed in 1842. Its lively character dances and theatrical variety display his choreographic range.
Marie Taglioni: An Italian-Swedish ballerina celebrated for her roles in Romantic ballets, especially La Sylphide. Her performance of La Sylphide in Paris in 1832 helped inspire Bournonville's later version.
Ballet mime: A system of gestures used in classical ballet to communicate narrative and emotion without speech. His ballets use mime to make plot legible while preserving extended passages of dancing.
Bournonville Ballet: A ballet company founded in Denmark to perform and teach works from Bournonville's repertory. It extends the performance of his choreography beyond the Royal Danish Ballet.

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