Bournonville method


The Bournonville method is a ballet technique and training system devised by the Danish ballet master August Bournonville.

Overview

August Bournonville trained with his father Antoine Bournonville and other notable French ballet masters. He was heavily influenced by the early French school of ballet, which he preserved in his teaching and choreography, when the traditional French methods began to disappear from European ballet. What is considered today to be the "Bournonville style" is essentially the unfiltered 19th century technique of the French school of classical dance.
The technique features very basic use of arms, usually keeping them in preparatoire position. Perpetual use of simple diagonal epaulements. Vocabulary for men is essentially varied forms of beats. Pirouettes are taken with a low developpe into seconde, then from seconde, for outside turns, and with a low developpe into 4th for inside turns. Also common are the dramatic use of fifth position bras en bas for beginning and ending movements. The style has many recognizable poses such as pointe derriere one arm in 5th, the other a la taille, with a touch of epaulement. F

Characteristics

The following is a list of notable dancers who received their training in the Bournonville method: