Christian Johansson

Pehr Christian Johansson (1 June 1817 – 12 December 1903) was a teacher, choreographer and balletmaster for the Russian Imperial Ballet. He was engaged at the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1829–41, and at the Imperial Russian Ballet in 1841–66.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, he moved to Russia as a dancer and stayed on as one of the most important teachers in Russian history. He is remembered in Russia as exemplifying the artistic beauty of the male dancer. He began teaching in 1860 and by 1869, had become the leading ballet instructor at the Imperial Ballet School. He stayed there until his death in 1903. Johansson studied under Bournonville and partnered the great ballerina Marie Taglioni.

Life

Career in Sweden

Johansson made his debut on the stage of the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. He became a student of the Royal Swedish Ballet of the Royal Swedish Opera in 1829, and was a premier dancer in 1837-40. During the 1830s, he was referred to as one of the male stars of the ballet alongside Anders Selinder, Vilhelm Pettersson and Carl Wilhelm Silfverberg.^[1]

Naturally endowed to be a fine dancer,

choreographer August Bournonville.^[2] After studying with Bournonville in Copenhagen for two years, Johansson earned the right to be called his pupil and was trained in the French classical style, la belle danse. Beautiful, flexible and graceful in the best tradition of the French school, Johansson attracted the attention of critics. In addition, the great Romantic ballerina, Marie Taglioni

, made it a condition of her engagement in Stockholm that Johansson be her partner.

Johansson went on to partner other great ballerinas as well, especially during his time in St. Petersburg. Some of these were

Yelena Andreyanova, Tatyana Smirnova, Marfa Muravieva, Nadezhda Bogdanova and Fanny Cerrito

.

Career in Russia

His move to Russia in 1841 helped Johansson's career as a dancer. At that time in

Arthur Saint-Leon

and Johansson himself, at the Russian Imperial Ballet.

His stage career spanned four

Maryinsky Theatre who had not been taught by Johansson, either at the Imperial Ballet

School or at the Theatre's Classe de Perfection.

Tall and thin, with seemingly perfect posture, the aging Johansson would appear in ballet class with a small violin and thick stick. He used this in order to keep the musical beat underneath his mumbled counts of the music. Sometimes the stick was set aside and, instead of his melancholic voice, his violin would sing and enliven the class with simple melodies from the ballets of his youth. This was a novel approach for the relatively severe atmosphere of the school. A calm, well-mannered man, he set an example of graciousness and was admired by the students.

Among his students: his daughter Anna Johansson, Pavel Gerdt, Platon Karsavin, Tamara Karsavina, Nikolai Legat, Sergei Legat, Olga Preobrajenska, Maria Gorshenkova [ru], Mathilde Kschessinska, Evgenia Sokolova, Praskovia Lebedeva [ru], Varvara Nikitina [ru], Agrippina Vaganova, Anna Pavlova, Marie Petipa etc.

Legacy

Johansson's pupils were not the only ones who were influenced by him. The Imperial

Ballet Master, Marius Petipa, would often observe his classes, watching and remembering. After those visits, Johansson would say laughingly, "Once again the old man is stealing something from me..." In truth, Petipa usually sent male dancers to Johansson to have their variations choreographed. Dancers would occasionally recognize their teacher's classroom combinations in Petipa's ballets. It has been substantiated that Johansson himself created and choreographed most of the male variations in the Petipa / Tchaikovsky ballet The Sleeping Beauty

(1890).

Christian Johansson's daughter, the ballerina

The Awakening of Flora (1894), and the lead ballerina of the Waltz of the Flowers in the premiere of The Nutcracker

(1892).

References

^ Nils Personne: Svenska teatern: några anteckningar 7. Under Karl Johanstiden : 1835-1838
^ Nils Personne: Svenska teatern : några anteckningar 7. Under Karl Johanstiden: 1835-1838

[1] Nils Personne: Svenska teatern: några anteckningar 7. Under Karl Johanstiden : 1835-1838

[2] Nils Personne: Svenska teatern : några anteckningar 7. Under Karl Johanstiden: 1835-1838

[1]

[2]

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