Saint-Léon, Arthur

Saint-Léon, (Charles-Victor-) Arthur (-Michel)

(born Sept. 17, 1821, Paris, Fr.—died Sept. 2, 1870, Paris) French dancer, choreographer, and violinist. He trained with his ballet-master father and toured extensively throughout Europe (1838–59), often playing the violin as he danced. He was ballet master at the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg (1859–69); his The Humpbacked Horse (1864) was the first ballet based on Russian folk themes. In 1870 he became ballet master at the Paris Opéra, where he choreographed his most famous ballet, Coppélia. He developed an early system of dance notation, which he published in 1852.