- Sophie Daguin
Sophie Daguin, (1801-1881), was a French
ballet dancer andchoreographer who spent her career in Sweden, where she became a star and the ballet master of theRoyal Swedish Ballet and principal of the ballet school.Biography
After six years education under Didelot in her hometown
Paris , she was employed in the Ballet of theRoyal Swedish Opera inStockholm , where she debuted in "La fille mal gardée" by Daubervals in 1815. The success was great, and her career continued steadily upwards; she was made premier dancer in 1820 (to 1843), ballet master for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1827 (to 1830), principal for the Ballet School in 1830 (to 1856) and pantomime dancer in 1843 (to 1856).She was the first female ballet master of the Royal Ballet, though she did not hold this position alone but shared it jointly with P. E. Wallquist, and left her position before him to become the principal of the ballet school. Until her forties she was considered one of the greatest dancers in Stockholm; she was seen as a role model in her role interpretations, and in her own choreographies, such as "Max och Emma" (1842), she presented traditions from Paris.
Among her best parts where the main part in the ballet "Jenny" or "Engelska inbrottet i Skottland", her part in the operas "Den lilla slavinnan" and "Fra Diavolo", in "Dansvurmen" by Selinder, "Hemkosten" by Bournonville, "Le Lac des fées" by
Filippo Taglioni and as the abbess in the famous ballet in the convent scene in "Robert av Normandie", and in 1836 she studied the part of Fenella in "Den stumma från Portici" byDaniel Auber forJohanne Luise Heiberg inCopenhagen .Sophie Daguin was never married; this was an age when women were not formally adults in a juridical sense, but in Sweden, it was allowed for an unmarried woman to apply for a declaration of independence, and in 1832, she was declared of
legal majority .References
* Österberg, Carin et al., "Svenska kvinnor: föregångare, nyskapare". Lund: Signum 1990. (ISBN 91-87896-03-6)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
