Birger Bartholin (1900- 1991)

Very few dancers in the world of classical ballet have begun their career as late as Birger Bartholin. He was 23, when he decided to be a dancer, but he obtained an international career both as a dancer and pedagogue. His first artistic ambitions were to become a painter, and he began his studies at the Academy of Arts in Copenhagen. He also began taking classical ballet lessons and when Michail Fokine came to Copenhagen in 1925 Bartholin’s destiny was determined. Fokine took him as a student and advised him to go to Paris and continue his education with the most esteemed Russian pedagogues of the time: Legat, Egorova and Volinine.

The young, blonde Dane with his delicate, lyric talent made his way to an engagement in Ida Rubinstein’s company. Here he – together with his close and lifelong friend Sir Friederick Ashton – performed in the world premier of Nijinska and Ravels Bolero.

The career continued in Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, with which he tour-ed worldwide, until he in 1937 took the initiative of founding The Ballets de la Jeunesse in Paris. When the second World War broke out Bartholin returned to Denmark, where he began to teach and choreograph. Several of his ballets, Romeo and Juliet, Symphonie Classique, Parisiana and La Jeunesse were performed by the Royal Danish Ballet.

In 1963 he invited to his first International Ballet Seminar. During the years he engaged the finest classical and modern pedagogues. Toni Lander, Erik Bruhn and Stanley Williams were for years artistic consultants for the seminar. With his high artistic thrive and his human loveable nature Birger Bartholin became an esteemed figure in Danish ballet and his esprit is still alive in the Bartholin International Ballet Seminar

EBBE MØRK (chairman of the board 1983-95)