Arthur Saint-Léon

He was born Charles Victor Arthur Michel in Paris, but was raised in Stuttgart, where his father was dance master for the court and the theatre ballet.

[1] Saint-Léon was encouraged by his father, who had also been a dancer of the Paris Opéra Ballet, to study music and dance.

When he was 17 years old, he made his début as first demi-charactére dancer at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

He became the teacher of the master class at the Opéra and he was in charge to choreograph the divertissements of the most important ballet production.

After touring across Europe, (he also worked three years for the Teatro San Carlos in Lisbon), he was invited to succeed Jules Perrot in 1859 as Maître de Ballet to the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, home of the Tsar's renowned Imperial Ballet, in St. Petersburg, Russia, a post which he held until 1869 (he was succeeded by Marius Petipa).