Christian Johansson

During the 1830s, he was referred to as one of the male stars of the ballet alongside Anders Selinder, Vilhelm Pettersson and Carl Wilhelm Silfverberg.

[1] Naturally endowed to be a fine dancer, Crown Prince Oscar financed his studies for the great Danish choreographer August Bournonville.

[2] After studying with Bournonville in Copenhagen for two years, Johansson earned the right to be called his pupil and was trained in the French classical style, la belle danse.

In addition, the great Romantic ballerina, Marie Taglioni, made it a condition of her engagement in Stockholm that Johansson be her partner.

This perhaps explains the appearance of the great artistic talents, Marius Petipa, Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Leon and Johansson himself, at the Russian Imperial Ballet.

When it ended in 1883, he continued teaching classes at the Imperial Ballet School on Theatre Street in St. Petersburg, something he had done for ten years already.

Tall and thin, with seemingly perfect posture, the aging Johansson would appear in ballet class with a small violin and thick stick.