Sophie Daguin

Sophie Marguerite Daguin (26 March 1801 – 13 March 1881) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer who spent her career in Sweden, where she became a star and the ballet mistress of the Royal Swedish Ballet and principal of the ballet school.

Daguin was born in Paris, France. After six years education under Didelot in her hometown Paris, she was employed in the Ballet of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, where she debuted in La fille mal gardée by Jean Dauberval in 1815. The success was great, and her career continued steadily upwards; she was made premier dancer in 1820 (to 1843), ballet master for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1827 (to 1830), principal for the Ballet School in 1830 (to 1856) and pantomime dancer in 1843 (to 1856).

She was the first female ballet master of the Royal Ballet, though she did not hold this position alone but shared it jointly with Per Erik Wallqvist. She left her position before him to become the principal of the ballet school. Until her forties, she was considered one of the greatest dancers in Stockholm. She was seen as a role model in her role interpretations, and in her own choreographies, such as Max och Emma (Max and Emma) (1842), she presented traditions from Paris.

Among her best parts where the main part in the ballet Jenny or Engelska inbrottet i Skottland (The English burglary in Scotland), her part in the operas Den lilla slavinnan (The Little Slave) and Fra Diavolo, in Dansvurmen (The Dance Craze) by Selinder, Hemkosten (The Return) by Bournonville, Le Lac des fées by Filippo Taglioni and as the abbess in the famous ballet in the convent scene in Robert av Normandie, and in 1836 she studied the part of Fenella in Den stumma från Portici by Daniel Auber for Johanne Luise Heiberg in Copenhagen. Among her students were Charlotta Norberg, counted as one of the greater stars within Swedish ballet in the 18th century, and Thérèse Elfforss.

Sophie Daguin was never married; this was an age when women were not formally adults in a juridical sense, but in Sweden, it was allowed for an unmarried woman to apply for a declaration of independence, and in 1832, she was declared of legal majority.