Bournonville Method
Also known as: Danish school, Bournonville school, Bournonville tradition, Royal Danish Ballet training
History & Cultural Context
August Bournonville (1805-1879) studied in Paris with Auguste Vestris, danced at the Opera, then returned to Copenhagen where he directed and choreographed for the Royal Danish Ballet from 1830 until the late 1870s, with intervals in Vienna and Stockholm. He wrote about training, notably in his Études chorégraphiques, but the six daily class sequences known today as the Bournonville Schools were assembled in the 1890s by Hans Beck from enchaînements taken out of the ballets and the classroom, and how faithfully Beck represented his teacher is a live scholarly question. The tradition survived because Denmark was small, its company continuous and its repertoire unusually stable, so ballets from the 1830s and 1840s stayed in performance rather than being reconstructed. It reached wider attention in the twentieth century through Harald Lander, through Erik Bruhn and the Danish male dancers who joined foreign companies, and through the Bournonville festivals in Copenhagen. Today it is taught in Denmark alongside international technique and elsewhere mainly as a specialist supplement, which means most dancers meet it as a style to learn rather than as their daily training.
Cultural Significance
Bournonville worked for a court theatre in a small country and wrote ballets with a moral and social frame, in which dancing expresses character rather than displaying the dancer. His insistence on serious male dancing runs against the mid-nineteenth-century European trend, where male roles elsewhere were being reduced or given to women, and the Danish tradition has produced male dancers out of proportion to the country's size ever since. The training exists to serve a specific repertoire, including La Sylphide, Napoli, A Folk Tale and Konservatoriet, and that repertoire is the reason it was preserved.
Characteristic Movement & Technique
Arms are held low and softly rounded, frequently near bras bas, with the elbow relaxed and no reaching for line; the épaulement is constant and diagonal, with the head inclined so that the dancer is almost never square to the audience. The back stays upright and calm while the legs execute rapid batterie, so that entrechats, brisés, cabrioles and ballonnés happen below a torso that gives nothing away. Ballon is the central quality: the plié is deep and elastic, the landing is absorbed silently, and the jump is timed to appear to hang without effort. Extensions stay low by modern standards and the dancer does not present positions to the front.
Partnering Dynamics
Pas de deux is conversational rather than displayed, with the man supporting simply and the two dancers addressing each other rather than the audience. Lifts are modest in scale and integrated into travelling phrases, and the famous duets from Napoli and the Flower Festival in Genzano are built on shared allegro rather than on sustained supported balances. The style asks the man to dance fully in his own right, not to function only as a support.
Competitive Context
There is no Bournonville examination board; the tradition is transmitted in company classes and in specialist coaching. Bournonville male variations are competition staples, particularly at the Prix de Lausanne, because they expose beats, ballon and clean landings with nowhere to hide. Competitors are often marked down on them for lifting the arms too high or over-presenting, which is exactly the fault the style is designed to eliminate.
Regional Variations
In Copenhagen the schools are maintained by coaches with direct lineage and are taught as living material, whereas abroad they are usually taught as a short course or a stylistic workshop attached to staging a ballet. The Danish company's own training changed permanently after Vera Volkova arrived in 1951 and brought Russian technique into the school, so what Danish dancers do now is a blend rather than a pure line. Different Danish coaches have also produced differing versions of the same enchaînements.
Common Misconceptions
Low arms and small extensions are frequently mistaken for a gentle or undemanding style, when the sequences are among the most punishing in classical training and demand exceptional stamina and precise beaten footwork. What is taught as Bournonville is Hans Beck's 1890s compilation as further edited by twentieth-century coaches, not a direct transcript of the 1830s classroom. And it is a training method with a repertoire attached, not a period genre of dance, though the two are constantly conflated because the repertoire is Romantic.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- The six daily schools
- Ballon and silent landings
- Extensive batterie
- Low, rounded arms and constant épaulement
- Serious male dancing
Notable Codifiers
- August Bournonville
- Hans Beck
- Valborg Borchsenius
- Harald Lander
- Kirsten Ralov
- Hans Brenaa
Sources & Further Reading
Cultural & Historical Context
Bournonville Method emerged from Copenhagen, Denmark during the 1830s—1879s. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Codifiers & Standardizers:
August Bournonville, Hans Beck, Valborg Borchsenius, Harald Lander, Kirsten Ralov, Hans Brenaa
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
The six daily schools, Ballon and silent landings, Extensive batterie, Low, rounded arms and constant épaulement, Serious male dancing
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: August 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
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