James Harvey D'Egville (ca. 1770 – ca. 1836) was an English dancer and choreographer. James' father Pierre D'Egville was ballet master at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...

and

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-sea ...

Theatres. His other son George D'Egville was also a dancer. James D'Egville performed at the Paris Opera from 1784 to 1785. Back in England, in June 1786, he danced in ''The Nosegay'' at the

Haymarket Theatre The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote ...

with

Maria Theresa Kemble Maria Theresa Kemble (1774–1838), née Marie Thérèse Du Camp, was an Austrian-born English actress, singer, dancer and comic playwright on the stage. She was the wife of actor Charles Kemble. Early life She was the daughter of Jeanne Dufour ...

in the presence of the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...

. On 7 July he appeared in a ballet entitled ''Jamie's Return'' with Kemble and his brother George. It was well received which inspired an artist named Miller to do a painting depicting the three of them.P.H. Highfill et al. (1982) ''A Biographical Dictionary of Actors'', Southern Illinois University Press Between 1799 and 1809 he was choreographer at the King's Theatre, now

Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, ...

where he had danced as a child in 1783.''Oxford Dictionary of Dance'' One of his pupils was Mary Ann Dyke who became tragedienne

Mary Ann Duff Mary Ann Duff (born Mary Ann Dyke; 1794 – 5 September 1857) was an English tragedienne, in her time regarded as the greatest upon the American stage. She was born in London, England, and died in New York City, United States. Biography Mary Ann ...

,Joseph Norton Ireland (1882) ''Mrs. Duff'', James R. Osgood and Co., Boston while another was

Arabella Menage Arabella Menage (5 July 1782 – 9 January 1817), also known as Mrs. Sharp,Miss Menag ...

. In 1827, the ''

London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

'' published an article decrying the fact that D'Egville had won a libel suit against '' The Spirit of the Age'' newspaper for writing about his alleged association with the assassin of Princess Lambelle while he was in France in 1792. It annoyed the magazine immensely that simply writing that someone had said something libellous was grounds to win damages against a periodical. The magazine also had snide things to say about D'Egville's ballets. They wrote of him, "the gentleman who deserves the thanks of all the saints on earth, for having cured the young men of the present day of the sinful taste for ballets."''The London Magazine'' (July 1827)

References

18th-century English ballet dancers English male ballet dancers Ballet choreographers English choreographers 1770 births 1836 deaths 19th-century British ballet dancers {{ballet-bio-stub

See also

References