Jean-Louis Aumer (21 April 1774 – 6 July 1833), also referred to as Jean-Pierre Aumer, was a French ballet dancer and choreographer.

Early life and career as a dancer

Aumer was born in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

of a manual labourer and non-theatrical parents and received little formal education. At an early age he became a pupil of

Jean Dauberval Jean Dauberval, a.k.a. Jean D’Auberval, (born Jean Bercher in Montpellier, 19 August 1742 – Tours, 14 February 1806), was a French dancer and ballet master. He is most noted for creating the ballet, ''La fille mal gardée'', one of the ...

of the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded ...

. When Dauberval became '' maître de ballet'' in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, Aumer went with him. In 1791 when Aumer was still sixteen, he went with Dauberval to London, where he first performed professionally.Guest 2008, p. 56. Believing he was growing too tall to be completely successful as a dancer, he studied Dauberval's choreographic methods and the related fields of music and art as well. He was engaged as a dancer with the Paris company in 1797 and made his debut there on 15 May 1798 in the " action ballet" ''Le déserteur'', with choreography by

Maximilien Gardel Maximilien Gardel (18 December 1741, in Mannheim – 11 March 1787, in Paris) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of German descent. He was the son of Claude Gardel, ballet master to King Stanisław Leszczyński, and elder brother by ...

and music by Ernest-Louis Müller. At the Paris Opera he was never to rise above the modest level of ''

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

'', although due to his height he was useful as a mime.

Career as a choreographer

The Paris Opera's '' maître de ballet''

Pierre Gardel Pierre-Gabriel Gardel (4 February 1758, in Nancy, France – 18 October 1840, in Paris) was a French ballet dancer, ballet master, violinist, and composer., 2007. He was the younger brother of Maximilien Gardel, seventeen years his senior. In 1795 ...

presented an obstacle which led Aumer to choose the

Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. History It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to house t ...

as the venue for which to choreograph and produce his early ballets. Faced with the implacable competition from Gardel, Aumer left France for engagements in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

(1808–1814) and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(1814–1820). Brief periods in Paris (1821–1822) and London (1824–1825) were followed by his return to the Paris Opera Ballet (1820–1831), where, enriched by the experience of working abroad, he engaged in a profound renovation of the French repertory, capped by his ''chef-d'œuvre'', ''

Manon Lescaut ''The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut'' ( ) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of ''Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité'' (''Memoirs and Adventures of a Ma ...

'' (1830). Aumer resigned from the Paris Opera in 1831 and died of a stroke in the summer of 1833 in

Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A residential village situated by the banks of the river Seine, some west of Rouen at the junction of the D67, D2 ...

. His daughter Sophie-Julie married the danseur around 1826.Van Aelbrouck 1994, p. 163.

Works

* 1804 ''La Fille mal gardée'', after Dauberval (Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin) * 1805 ''Rosina et Lorenzo'' (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin) * 1805 ''Robinson Crusoé'' (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin) * 1805 ''Le Page inconstant'', after Dauberval (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin) * 1806 ''Jenny ou le Mariage secret'' (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin) * 1806 ''Les Deux Créoles'' (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin) * 1808: ''Les Amours d'Antoine et de Cléopâtre'' (Opéra de Paris) * 1814 ''Zéphire et Flore'' (Vienna) * 1814 ''Louise et Alexis'', after ''Le Déserteur'' de Dauberval (Vienna) * 1814 ''Myrsile et Antéros'' (Vienna) * 1815 ''La Fête de la rose'' (Vienna) * 1815 ''Les Bayadères'' (Vienna) * 1816 ''Les Noces de Thétis et de Pélée'' (Vienna) * 1816 ''Les Deux Tantes'' (Vienna) * 1817 ''Amour et Psyché'' (Vienna) * 1817 ''Érigone ou le Triomphe de Bacchus'' (Vienna) * 1818 ''Le Sommeil enchanté'' (Vienna) * 1818 ''Aline, reine de Golconde'' (Vienna) * 1819 ''Ossian'' (Vienna) * 1820 ''Emma ou le Mariage secret'' (Vienna) * 1820 ''Alfred le Grand'' (Vienna) * 1820 ''Les Pages du duc de Vendôme'' (Paris Opera Ballet) * 1821 ''Jeanne d'Arc'' (Paris Opera Ballet) * 1824 ''Le Songe d'Ossian'' (

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 ...

) * 1825 ''Cléopâtre, reine d'Égypte'' (London) * 1827 ''Astolphe et Joconde'' (Paris Opera Ballet) * 1827 ''

La Somnambule ou L'Arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

'' (Paris Opera Ballet) * 1828 ''Lydie'' (Paris Opera Ballet) * 1829 ''La Belle au bois dormant'' (Paris Opera Ballet) * 1830 ''Manon Lescaut'' (Paris Opera Ballet)

Notes

Sources

* Babsky, Monique (1998). "Aumer, Jean-Louis", vol. 1, pp. 201–203, in ''International Encyclopedia of Dance'' (6 volumes), edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (hardcover). (2004 paperback edition). * Beaumont, Cyril W. (1938)
"Jean Aumer", pp. 44–71
in ''Complete Book of Ballets''. New York: Grosset & Dunlop
Copy
at Internet Archive. * Craine, Debra; Mackrell, Judith (2000). ''The Oxford Dictionary of Dance''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . *

Guest, Ivor Forbes Ivor Forbes Guest DUniv MA FRAD (14 April 1920 – 30 March 2018) was a British historian and writer, best known for his study of ballet. He was chairman of the Royal Academy of Dance for twenty three years (1970–93) and has been a Vice-Pr ...

(2008). ''The Romantic Ballet in Paris''. Alton, Hampshire: Dance Books. . * Pitou, Spire (1985). ''The Paris Opera: An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers. Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. . * Van Aelbrouck, Jean-Philippe (1994). ''Dictionnaire des danseurs: Chorégraphes et maîtres de danse à Bruxelles de 1600 à 1830''. Liège: Mardaga. . *

Winter, Marian Hannah Marian Hannah Winter (1910 – 15 December 1981) was an American dance historian. She has been called one of "the woforemost names in American dance history."Kisselgoff 1. In the 1940s, dance historian Lincoln Kirstein solicited Winter to write ...

(1974). ''The Pre-Romantic Ballet''. London: Pitman. .

External links

NY Times review
by

Roslyn Sulcas Roslyn Sulcas is a dance critic and culture writer for ''The New York Times''. She was raised in Cape Town, South Africa, and studied English literature at university, receiving post-graduate degrees from the University of Cape Town and Paris VII ( ...

, June 28, 2007
Aumer
on Data.bnf.fr 1774 births French male ballet dancers French ballet masters Ballet choreographers French choreographers 19th-century French ballet dancers 1833 deaths Aumer, Jean-Pierre Aumer {{Ballet-bio-stub