Joseph Hansen (dancer)

Joseph Hansen was a Belgian dancer and choreographer. He was maître de ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1887 to 1907.

Life

Ballet director at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels from 1865 à 1871, he was its ballet master from 1871 to 1875, putting on the first production of Coppélia on 29 November 1871. He held the same role at the Opéra de Paris during the 1875–1876 season. He was in London in 1877–1878, then worked at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow from 1879 to 1882, where in 1880 and 1882 he put on his own version of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and directed Russia's first production of Coppélia.

Original choreography

Une fête nautique Les Belles de nuit Les Nations Les Fleurs animées La Vision d'Harry Pierrot macabre La Tempête by Ambroise Thomas Le Rêve by Léon Gastinel Psyché et l'Amour La Maladetta by Paul Vidal Fête Russe, arr. by Paul Vidal Les Cygnes L'Étoile by André Wormser La Légende de l'or Danses de Jadis et de Naguère Bacchus, ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes by Alphonse Duvernoy, libretto by Hansen and Georges Hartmann after a poem by Auguste Mermet La Ronde des saisons by Henri Büsser Le lac des Aulnes by Maréchal