Jean-Baptiste Barrez (28 November 1792 – 27 November 1868) was a French dancer and ballet master. He was the son of surgeon Jean-Baptiste Barrez and Julie Jolivet. Barrez studied under Jean-Francois Coulon and was the

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, p ...

at the

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux The Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux is an opera house in Bordeaux, France, first inaugurated on 17 April 1780. It was in this theatre that the ballet ''La fille mal gardée'' premiered in 1789, and where a young Marius Petipa staged some of his firs ...

from 1817 to 1821. He married Jeanne-Marie Blache, daughter of choreographer

Jean-Baptiste Blache Jean-Baptiste Blache de Beaufort (17 May 1765, in Berlin – 24 January 1834, in Toulouse) was a German ballet dancer and ballet master active in France. A student of Deshayes, he learned the violin and cello and had what was in essence a provin ...

, on 28 July 1819. The young couple had a son, Jean-Baptiste Hippolyte Barrez, (born 22 April 1820) who also become a dancer and dance teacher to Spanish dancer

Lola Montez Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld (17 February 1821 – 17 January 1861), better known by the stage name Lola Montez (), was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig ...

. Jean-Baptiste Barrez began performing at the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

in 1821 and remained there until 1843. He originated roles in several ballets of

Jean Coralli Jean Coralli (15 January 1779 – 1 May 1854) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer, best known for collaborating with Jules Perrot in creating ''Giselle'' (1841), the quintessential Romantic ballet of the nineteenth century. Early life ...

and

Joseph Mazilier Joseph Mazilier (1 March 1801 in Marseilles – 19 May 1868 in Paris) was a 19th-century French dancer, balletmaster and choreographer. He was born as ''Giulio Mazarini''. He was most noted for his ballets ''Paquita'' (1844) and '' Le Corsaire ...

, including ''Le Diable boiteux'' (1836), ''La Tarentule'' (1839), '' Le Diable amoureux'' (1840) and ''La Péri'' (1843). He began teaching ballet at the opera in 1832; Danish ballerina

Lucile Grahn Lucile Alexia Grahn-Young (30 June 1819 – 4 April 1907) was the first internationally renowned Danish ballerina and one of the popular dancers of the Romantic ballet era. Grahn studied from a young age at the Royal Danish Theatre School i ...

was one of his students. In the spring of 1844, he was called to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, where he worked as a ballet master at the Teatro del Circo and shared the stage with

Marie Guy-Stéphan Marie-Antoinette Guy-Stéphan (18 November 1818 - 20 August 1873) was a French dancer who triumphed at Spanish theaters between 1843 and 1851. Richard Ford, travel writer, arrived in Spain in 1830 and wrote about the rivalry between Guy-Stéphan ...

, Clara Galby, Clotilde Laborderie, Ernest Gontié and

Marius Petipa Marius Ivanovich Petipa (russian: Мариус Иванович Петипа), born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa (11 March 1818), was a French ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. Petipa is one of the most influential ballet masters an ...

. In 1847, he was hired as a ballet master at the

Théâtre de la Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, a position he only occupied for one season. He then settled in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

the following year.

Compositions

*1817: ''Téniers au village'', a ballet in two acts (Bordeaux) *1847: ''Terpsichore sur terre'',

fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characte ...

ballet (Brussels) *1853: ''Souvenir du Hâvre'',

polka-mazurka The polka-mazurka is a dance, musically similar to the mazurka, but danced much like the polka. Many polka-mazurkas were composed by Johann Strauss II and his family. Johann Strauss I did not compose any of this type of music; the first polka-mazurk ...

for piano (Paris) *1865: ''Arcachon'',

quadrille The quadrille is a dance that was fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies. The quadrille consists of a chain of four to six '' contredanses''. Latterly the quadrille was frequently danced to a medley of opera melodie ...

polka Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ...

for piano, new ballroom dance (Paris)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrez, Jean-Baptiste French male ballet dancers French ballet masters Dancers from Paris 19th-century French ballet dancers 1792 births 1868 deaths