François Duval (born 21 May 1743,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

), known as Malter, was a French dancer.

Biography

François Duval was the son of Antoine Duval, a dance master in Paris, and of Henriette Brigitte Malter. Two of his elder brothers were also involved in the theatre world; Antoine Jean François Duval (1732–?) left Paris in 1755 and worked as a dance master in Rochefort/Mer, whilst Jean Charles Duval (1741–?) was

first violin The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the most significant ...

at the Comédie de

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. François Duval was thus part of the Malter family, an 18th-century dynasty of dancers and dance-teachers. He married Marie-Anne Hamoir, also from a family of dancers. François became

ballet master A ballet master (also balletmaster, ballet mistress, ''premier maître de ballet'' or ''premier maître de ballet en chef'') is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In mo ...

at the

Académie royale de Danse The Académie Royale de Danse, founded by Letters Patent on the initiative of King Louis XIV of France in March 1661, was the first dance institution established in the Western world. As one of King Louis’ first official edicts after the death ...

. From 1778, he worked with Louis Hamoir and Jean Nicolas Le Mercier, then François Bigottini, as head of the Théâtre des Variétés-Amusantes, on rue de Bondy à Paris, at the

théâtre de la foire Théâtre de la foire () is the collective name given to the theatre put on at the annual fairs at Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent church, Paris, Saint-Laurent (and for a time, at Saint-Ovide) in Paris. Foire Sain ...

Saint-Laurent.

Sources

* Émile Campardon, ''Les spectacles de la Foire'', Paris 1877 * ''Dictionnaire de la danse'', Paris, Larousse, 1999

External links

''Les spectacles de la Foire'', by Émile Campardon, 1877
1743 births French male ballet dancers Year of death missing 18th-century French ballet dancers Dancers from Paris {{ballet-bio-stub