Henri Justamant

Henri Justamant ( born March 29, 1815 in Bordeaux, France, † 1890 in Parc Saint -Maur, France) was a French dancer, choreographer and ballet master.

Life

Henri Justamant was the eldest of three sons of Auguste Justamant and his wife Marie, née Ricard. A text of 1893 reported that he had been students of the " célèbres chorégraphes français Henry et Blache ". He began his career at theaters in Marseille, Bordeaux and Nantes, and then work from 1849-1861 as successful at the Grand Théâtre de Lyon as a choreographer that many of his works were later taken over by the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

In the 1860s Justamant worked mainly in Paris, where he led one after the Ballets de la Porte -Saint- Martin, de l'Opéra de la Gaîté and the Folies Bergère. As Premier Maître de Ballet of the Paris Opera in the season 1868/69 he created the choreography for divertissement in the version of the opera Faust by Charles Gounod.

Even abroad Justamant worked as a choreographer, mainly in Brussels and London, but also with a choreography in Berlin. At the Royal Alhambra Theatre in London Justamant works include 1877, the choreography for the English premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers. Until his death in 1890 Justamant continued to work for the Théâtre des Folies Bergère in Paris.

Importance

Yet 1893 was Justamant as " d' un des plus grands chorégraphes you siècle ". Because the international ballet historiography in the 20th century focused on the France of the 19th century mainly due to the choreographers of the Paris Opera, where he had briefly worked and performed not own large independent ballet, his work fell into oblivion. It was not until about 100 years after his death began the rediscovery by the science of dance, with mainly transmitted his extensive writing fixed oeuvre of over 190 recorded so far Inszenierungsnotaten the ballets he lists important information about the choreographic practice of the 19th century. From his 1893 auctioned discount the handwritten books came with the records of his ballets over the decades in various libraries and archives; Lots more are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection of the New York Public Library and the Theatre Archive, University of Cologne. His notation of Giselle published in 2008 as a facsimile in pressure.