La Ventana

Ballet in one act with choreography and libretto by Bournonville, music by Christian Lumbye and Wilhelm Christian Holm. Premiered 19 June 1854 by the Price family at the Casino Theatre in Copenhagen. The ballet, the title of which means ‘the window’, is a divertissement in which a young Señorita dreams of a handsome man she has just met. Its most famous scene sees the ballerina dancing with her image in the mirror (performed by a second ballerina dancing in unison). Bournonville created the ballet for Juliette Price, a member of the famous English circus family, whom he idolized. He revised La Ventana for the Ballet's premiere at the Royal Danish Ballet (Royal Theatre, Copenhagen) in 1856. For the latter staging, he added a seguidilla which he admittedly borrowed from Paul Taglioni and a pas de trois. La Ventana was revived by Frank Schaufuss and Hans Brenaa for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1941 and has been revived for various companies abroad, including the Bolshoi Ballet. Erik Bruhn staged the pas de trois from La Ventana for American Ballet Theatre in New York in 1975 for himself, Cynthia Gregory, and Nureyev. Revived for Western Theatre Ballet (Sadler's Wells, 1968), Scottish Theatre Ballet (1969-71), and Irish Ballet (Cork, 1977).