Antoine de Beaulieu

Antoine de Beaulieu was a French noble, dancer, and ballet master of the Swedish court from 1637 to 1663 and is considered to have introduced ballet in Sweden.

Career

Antoine de Beaulieu was employed in Sweden after a recommendation to the Queen Dowager, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, by the French ambassador. Ballet was considered as a good exercise for boys of the nobility to move gracefully during riding and fencing. In 1638, Beaulieu performed a dramatic ballet with poems for Queen Christina by the order of Eleonora Catherine of Pfalz-Zweibrücken. The participants consisted of boys and men of the nobility, among them Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and the future Charles X Gustav of Sweden. He made about 20 ballets until 1654. At the coronation of Christina in 1651, he performed in a coronation ballet.