Bournonville: Citizen and artist

Abstract

In an essay dealing with August Bournonville's relationship to several of the leading Danish writers of his day, Erik Aschengreen remarks that can dance Boumonville without knowing anything about the man who during the last century lived within the ramparts of Copenhagen. But, he goes on to say, if one takes the trouble to acquire some historical knowledge of the man and his times, can get closer to the core of his art.1 The present article is an attempt to understand that art more fully by shedding some light on a relatively unexplored area: the ballet master's political sympathies. An awareness of this aspect of Boumonville's thought and the way in which it colored his attitude toward life and art is important if one wants to appreciate fully his place in nineteenth-century Danish social and artistic life. Boumonville's political beliefs were as sacred and vital to him as his religious convictions; they are revealed not only in his diaries and memoirs, but in his ballet scenarios and in his views on the role of the theatre as an institution-an expression of what is best in a people and an important element in the spiritual development of nations.2 It should be said at the outset that August Boumonville was not a politician. As an artist, he deliberately held aloof from political demonstrations,3 and unlike men such as France's Victor Hugo and Alphonse de Lamartine, he did not aspire to political office when the constitutional era dawned. Bournonville might better be described as politically aware and socially active. He belonged to a number of civic societies and charitable organizations. He was an astute observer of everything happening around him and intensely interested in the effect the revolutionary times in which he lived would have on his country and on his art. He was, in