Editing August Bournonville (section)

==Early years==
Born in [[Copenhagen]] on 21 August 1805, Bournonville was the son of the French ballet master [[Antoine Bournonville]], who had settled in [[Denmark]], and Lovisa Sundberg, a Swede. At the age of eight, he entered the Royal Ballet School at the Court Theatre in [[Christiansborg Palace]] under the tutelage of his father and [[Vincenzo Galeotti]], ballet master and principal choreographer of the [[Royal Danish Ballet]] from 1775 to 1816.<ref>Terry, Walter. ''The King's Ballet Master: A Biography of Denmark's August Bournonville.'' New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1979. {{ISBN|0-396-07722-6}}.</ref>

On 2 October 1813, Bournonville made his first stage appearance in a small part as the son of a Viking king in Galeotti's ''Lagertha'', the first ballet on a Nordic theme. Less than a year later, he received his first personal applause for dancing a Hungarian solo at the Court Theatre. In addition to dance, Bournonville was a voracious reader, learned French at home, played the violin, sang in a boy soprano voice, and studied declamation with the actors [[Michael Rosing]], Lindgreen, and Frydensdahl. His many talents were brought together on the Queen's birthday, 29 October 1817, when as a twelve-year-old he played the role of Adonia to royal acclaim in a music-drama, ''Solomon's Judgment'' and sang a romance, "The Mother with Her Drooping Wings".