Royal Swedish Ballet

The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian dominance in this field; he also founded the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre. All of these were initially located in the old theatre of Bollhuset. The troupe was founded with the opening of the Royal Swedish Opera, which has served as its home since that time.

Royal Swedish Ballet
General information
Name	Royal Swedish Ballet
Local name	Kungliga Baletten
Year founded	1773
Founder	King Gustav III
Principal venue	Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm, Sweden
Website	www.operan.se/en/
Artistic staff
Artistic Director	Nicolas Le Riche
Music Director	Alan Gilbert
Other
Official school	Kungliga Svenska Balettskolan
Formation	Principal Dancer 1st Soloist 2nd Soloist Corps de Ballet

In 1773, the cultural professions of acting, opera-singing and ballet-dancing in Sweden were all performed by foreign troupes. The first ballet performance was performed at the Swedish court when the French ballet troupe of Antoine de Beaulieu was hired at the court of Queen Christina in 1638, and the first Public ballet performance were performed by the foreign theatre troupes at the theatre of Bollhuset later the same century. The only exception had been the period of 1737–1753, when the first professional Swedish troupe of actors had performed at Bollhuset; during this period, ballets were performed by the first Swedish dancers in this troupe. The perhaps first ballet performed by professional native Swedish dancers was in the play Den afvundsiuke ("The Envious") by Olof von Dahlin in August 1738. However, no names are known about these first dancers. They were probably educated by Jean Marquard as dancing-master, and one of the dancers were also French, Gabriel Senac. In 1753, however, the first Swedish ballet, theatre and opera at Bollhuset were dissolved.

Gustav III wanted to create and educate native talents in these professions. To accomplish this, he used the same method in the ballet as he was to use with the theatre; by having the first generation of native dancers educated by foreign professionals. When he fired the French theatre-company to create his national-stage in 1773, he kept many of the French dancers of this troupe. Dancers from France, Italy and Belgium, such as Antoine Bournonville, Louis Gallodier, Giovanna Bassi and Julie Alix de la Fay were hired to perform and to educate Swedish students. Most of the first students to the troupe were taken among children to the staff at the royal court and to professional musicians, as were the first students to the theatre and the opera. In the first ballet-troupe in the national stage of 1773, they were very few native talents with former professional experience; one of them was Charlotte Slottsberg, who could be counted as the first native Swedish ballerina known by name. The greatest triumph of the Swedish ballet during the 18th century is considered to be the performance by Gallodier for the opera Gustav Adolf och Ebba Brahe (Gustav Adolf and Ebba Brahe) (1786); also the ballet Fiskarna (The Fishes) by Antoine Bournonville (1789) became a great success.

The ballet was closely linked to opera from the beginning; ballets were a part of the performances of the opera, and the dancers were also active on the Royal Dramatic Theatre. When the Royal Swedish Opera were closed down between 1806 and 1809–1812, the ballet was not closed, only moved to the theatre.

During the 19th century, new ballets were frequently made, and older ones seldom performed; En komisk balett (A comic ballet) by Louis Deland was given 127 times between 1796 and 1809, followed by La Fille Mal Gardée, given 54 times in 1812–1842. August Bournonville was active as a guest ballet master 1839, 1847, 1857, 1858 and 1861–1864, and his favorite Swedish ballerinas Charlotta Norberg and Johanna Sundberg educated students in his techniques. The ballet is considered to have been in a state of decay during the end of the 19th century; after the dismissal of Anders Selinder and Sophie Daguin in 1856, the ballet was used more as a supplement to the opera and not as an independent artform, and Sigurd Lund, a student of Bournonville, was not independent enough to prevent this. It was not until 1913, that the ballet returned to a more independent form.

The Kungliga Hovkapellet (Royal Swedish Orchestra), the orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera, is the performing partner for the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Nicolas LeRiche is the director of the Royal Swedish Ballet. Birgitta Svendén is the general director of the Royal Swedish Opera. The members of Operans Balettklubb^[1] are supporters of the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Name	Nationality	Training	Joined the Royal Swedish Ballet	Promoted to Principal Dancer	Other Companies
Daria Ivanova	Russia	School of Irina Tihomirnova Dance Center Timofeevoi Rudra Béjart Lausanne	2012	2017	Béjart Ballet
Dawid Kupinski	Poland	National Ballet School Gdansk		2016	Royal Danish Ballet Béjart Ballet
Luiza Lopes	Brazil	Escola Municipal de Bailados de São Paulo Núcleo de Danca Nice Leite Ilara Lopes Royal Ballet School English National Ballet School	2015	2022	Sao Paulo Dance Company
Kentaro Mitsumori	Japan	Zion Ballet John Cranko Schule	2017
Daniel Norgren Jensen	Denmark	Swedish Ballet School Malmo Canada's National Ballet School Royal Ballet School	2009	2017	L-E-V Dance Company Berlin State Ballet
Nathalie Nordquist	Sweden	Royal Swedish Ballet School	1998	2005	Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
Nadja Sellrup			1994	2007	Bayerisches Staatsballett Victor Ullate Company Spanish National Dance Company
Madeline Woo	United States	John Cranko Schule	2017	2022
Dmitry Zagrebin	Russia	Moscow State Academy of Choreography	2015	2017	Bolshoi Ballet Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre Queensland Ballet

Name	Nationality	Training	Joined the Royal Swedish Ballet	Promoted to 1st Soloist	Other Companies
AdiLiJiang Abudureheman	China	Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Shanghai Far East Intermediate Ballet Arts Academy	2007	2012
Sarah Erin Keaveney	United Kingdom	Royal Ballet School	2018	2023
Anthony Lomuljo	Sweden  United States	Juilliard School	2012	2014	Gothenburg Dance Company Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Sasha Waltz and Guests
Minji Nam	South Korea	Perm State Choreographic College Heinz-Bosl Ballet Academy	2007		Aalto Theatre Semperoper
Rikako Shibamoto	Japan	Megumi Ballet School Vienna State Ballet Academy	2022	N/A, Joined as 1st Soloist	Vienna State Ballet Royal Danish Ballet
Maya Schonbrun	United States	Master Ballet Academy	2022	2024
Desislava Stoeva	Bulgaria	National School of Dance Arts Sofia	2007	2012	Finnish National Ballet
Taylor Yanke	Canada	Académie de Danse Princesse Grace	2021	2024

Stockholm 59° North is a chamber company of soloist dancers from the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Artistic Director is Mia Hjelte.

• Royal Swedish Opera
• Drottningholm Palace Theatre
• Confidencen – Ulriksdal Palace Theatre
• Charlotte Slottsberg
• Hedda Hjortsberg
• Ulrika Åberg

• Kennedy Center Arts Edge
• Georg Nordensvan : Svensk teater och Svenska skådespelare. Första bandet 1773–1842 (1917)
• Tryggve Byström: Svenska Komedien, 1737–1754
• Klas Ralf, Prisma: Operan 200 år. Jubelboken
• Klas Åke Heed: Ny svensk teaterhistoria. Teater före 1800. Gidlunds förlag (2007)
• https://www.operan.se/en/who-s-who-at-the-opera/royal-swedish-ballet

• Royal Swedish Ballet homepage on Operan.se (in Swedish) (click "language" for English translation)
• Archival footage of Stockholm/59 North performing Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven in 1997 at Jacob's Pillow
• NY Times review of Stockholm/59° North at Jacob's Pillow August 5, 2005