Hedda Hjortsberg

Hedda (Hedvig Katarina) Hjortsberg (15 June 1777 – 3 October 1867) was a Swedish ballerina who starred for the Royal Swedish Ballet. She was the sister of the Swedish actor Lars Hjortsberg.

Biography

Hjortsberg's father Laurentius (Lars) was employed at the Swedish court and her mother, Maria Lovisa Schützer, was an opera singer; of their six children, two sons and two daughters were employed at the theatre or the opera, and two became famous: Hedda as a dancer, and Lars as an actor.

In 1786, at age nine, Hedda became a student of French balletmaster Louis Gallodier. Upon graduation in the season of 1790–1791, she was considered one of the great native artists who starred with the Royal Swedish Ballet, which was long dominated by foreign dancers.

Between 1791 and 1806 she was a premier-dancer of the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. The writer Marianne Ehrenström called her the delightful darling of the audience, and describes her as gracious as a nymph: "une taille de nymphe, pétrie de graces, Terpsicore soulovée par les Zephirs".

When the Royal Swedish Opera reopened in 1809 after it had been closed since 1806, she performed with her five-year-old daughter in the ballet Dansvurmen, and in 1810 she performed the part of Honor in Gustavs dröm at the Opera.

In 1804 Hjortsberg married the businessman Erik Samuel Koersner, who died shortly afterward. She married Abraham Hülphers in 1811, and after that, she performed only as a guest-artist.

Repertoire

She danced the parts of Lucile in the pantomime ballet Det dubbla giftermålet by Jean Marcadet with Margaretha Christina Hallongren, Carl Dahlén, Joseph Saint-Fauraux Raimond and Carlo Uttini the season of 1790–1791, Leonore in Enleveringen by Louis Deland with him, Hallongren, Uttini, Luigi Taglioni and Charles Jean Ambrosiani and Diana in Diana och Kärleken by Deland with Johan Fredrik Björkstrand, Deland, Hallongren, Casagli and Hedvig Elisabeth Casagli in 1800–1801; she also did the part of Venus in Venus och Adonis by Deland with H. Björkman, Casagli, Giovanni Battitsta Ambrosiani and Hallongren 1801–1802, and as Frosine in Dansvurmen (Dance Craze) by Gardel with Deland, Filippo Taglioni, Anna Christina Löfborg, Anders Ekholm, Raimond and Ambrosiani the season 1803–1804.

See also

References

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