August bournonville la sylphide female

For all the talk of them being the happiest of dancers, the Danes seem oddly at home in tragedy. It was impossible not to notice how markedly downbeat the Royal Danish Ballet’s program was on Friday. We again saw The Lesson, that dreadful Flemming Flindt work about a young girl’s assault and murder, followed by August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, an iconic Romantic ballet that witnesses the triumph of evil over good. Some start to the weekend!

Yet after the The Lesson‘s torture, La Sylphide — the classic tale of a Scotsman’s doomed affair with a sylph — was a delight. Choreographed by Bournonville in 1836, La Sylphide is one of few Romantic ballets still performed with all the original steps, offering a rich taste of Bournonville style. (Compare with companies such as American Ballet Theatre, where nearly every story ballet is made “after” a great choreographer.) Friday’s cast — featuring Ulrik Birkkjær as James, Gudrun Bojesen as La Sylphide, and Sorella Englund as Madge —  gave subtle performances that radiated with intensity. The gingham kilts and skirts moved more beautifully than I’d imagined. (Although that didn’t stop a gentleman sitting nearby from being scandalized by James’s black socks: “They’re always blue or green to match his kilt.”)

The original 1832 Paris production of La Sylphide was revolutionary for elevating pointework from acrobatics to artistry, so it was alarming to see the toes used so infrequently in Bournonville’s version. He employs it as an otherworldly effect, to separate the weightless sylphs (“spirits of the air”) from the ballet’s mortal, earth-bound characters. Pointework first enters in the sylph’s opening solo, when she dances delicately around the sleeping James. Later, in what are pe

by Rachel Wunder 

One of the world’s oldest existing romantic ballets, La Sylphide originally premiered on March 12, 1832 in Paris, with now lost choreography by Filippo Taglioni.  A success, the ballet was re-choreographed in 1836 by the Danish ballet master August Bournonville.  Bournonville had planned on reviving Taglioni’s version but because the Paris Opera’s price for the original score by Schneitzhoeffer, Bournonville made his own production, based off of the original story but with a new score.  Since the premiere in November of 1836, the Bournonville version of La Sylphide has been one of the Royal Danish Ballet’s most illustrious works.

A Brief Plot Synopsis

As was the style of romantic ballets during the era, the stories brought remote or “exotic” locations to their audiences – Scotland being one of them during this time, which is where the story of La Sylphide begins.  James Ruben, a Scotsman, is sleeping in a chair by the fire in the hall of a Scottish farmhouse, when he is awakened by a forest fairy, or sylph who has been watching him lovingly and dancing around him.  James questions his friend Gurn about it, but Gurn reminds James of his approaching marriage to Effie, James’ fiancée.  Effie arrives with her mother and bridesmaids and as everyone socializes, James is distracted with thinking of the Sylph.  The old witch, Madge, who has somehow slipped in and is warming her hands by the fire, is discovered and Effie and all of her friends beg James to let them have their fortunes told.  When Madge tells Effie that James loves someone else and she will be married to another, James is enraged.  He throws Madge out, and the festivities continue.  While briefly alone, James encounters the Sylph who comes to him and professes her love for him, weeping and mourning his impending marriage to Effie, letting him know that she has been with him and has watched

Danish ballet master and choreographer (1805–1879)

"Bournonville" redirects here. For the ballet style, see Bournonville method. For other uses, see Bournonville (disambiguation).

August Bournonville (21 August 1805 – 30 November 1879) was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. He was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Bournonville was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, where his father had settled. He trained with his father Antoine Bournonville as well he studied under the Italian choreographer Vincenzo Galeotti at the Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen, and in Paris, France, under French dancer Auguste Vestris. He initiated a unique style in ballet known as the Bournonville School.

Following studies in Paris as a young man, Bournonville became solo dancer at the Royal Ballet in Copenhagen. From 1830 to 1848 he was choreographer for the Royal Danish Ballet, for which he created more than 50 ballets admired for their exuberance, lightness and beauty. He created a style which, although influenced from the Paris ballet, is entirely his own. As a choreographer, he created a number of ballets with varied settings that range from Denmark to Italy, Russia to South America. A limited number of these works have survived.

Bournonville's work became known outside Denmark only after World War II. Since 1950, The Royal Ballet has

Quite a trove of ancient dance clips lives on YouTube.  (Though ‘ancient’ in cinema terms means beginning of the 20th century; we’re not talking Pharaoh’s pyramids here.)  Among them are two films of Ellen Price, once the prima ballerina of the Royal Danish Ballet, dancing solos from the company’s signature piece, August Bournonville’s La Sylphide.  The first is from 1903, with Price dancing the Sylph’s opening solo (when James is asleep), the second from 1906, in which she dances that same opening solo followed by the Sylph’s second solo in the first act (when she dances for James).  These clips are courtesy of the YouTube channel hookham, which I recommend you check out for its varied collection of dance films.

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Both films, at least as seen on YT, are in wretched condition, in need of serious restoration.  The images glare, blot, waver, fade to white, or shade too darkly; and I wonder if the playback speed is correct (at times Price moves awfully fast).  Then there are the original conditions under which the films were made, which also may affect our impressions.  They seem almost on-the-fly in feel, as if the camera started cranking without much ado, and in a space a little larger than my bathroom (it was probably done in the photographer’s studio, with a backdrop hastily tacked up for ‘atmosphere’).  My guess is Price also had to stay within floor markings so as not to pass out of camera range (cameras couldn’t move then).  That probably shortened her jumps, as well as constrained her movements.  Yet, conversely, the limited space adds to these films’ antique charm.  It’s as if Price is prancing atop a music box or incised within a cameo, preserved in a moment of flight.

In looking at P