Louis Joseph Marie Deland (25 April 1772 – 15 April 1823) was a Swedish ballet dancer, singer, actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, choreographer and ballet master

Ballet Master

Ballet Master is the term used for an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company...

 in the Royal Swedish Ballet

Royal Swedish Ballet

The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian dominance in this field; he also founded the Royal Swedish Opera and the...

. He is often considered the first native male star in the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Life and career

Louis Deland was the child of Louise-Antoine Deland, the hair dresser, parfymeuse and footman

Footman

A footman is a male servant, notably as domestic staff.-Word history:The name derives from the attendants who ran beside or behind the carriages of aristocrats, many of whom were chosen for their physical attributes. They ran alongside the coach to make sure it was not overturned by such obstacles...

 of queen Sophia Magdalena of Denmark

Sophia Magdalena of Denmark

Sofia Magdalena of Denmark and Norway was a Queen consort of Sweden as the spouse of Gustav III of Sweden....

; his father was originally from Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

. He was the brother of is the violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist Jean Pierre Deland. He debuted on the stage of the Royal Swedish Opera

Royal Swedish Opera

Kungliga Operan is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet.-Location and Environment:...

 in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 in the ballet to the opera Orphée at the age of ten (1782), and so impressed the king Gustav III of Sweden

Gustav III of Sweden

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....

, that he was sent to be educated at the ballet of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 by the famous Gardel.

In 1792, he returned to Sweden, where he made his home coming performance in Armide 9 January and was hired as premier dancer, singer and actor at the Royal Swedish Opera and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre

Royal Dramatic Theatre

The Royal Dramatic Theatre is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's eight running stages....

. He were soon considered the most notable male dancer in the country; he also had a beautiful voice and was considered very good in comical parts, and his interaction in the plays with Lars Hjortsberg

Lars Hjortsberg

Lars Hjortsberg was a Swedish actor. He is often called the greatest male actor in his country in the 19th century; he and Emilie Högquist are the best known Swedish actors from the first half of that century.- Biography :...

 and Carl Schylander were videly admired, he was considered to be a natural talent, who became one with his part- he was said to have a feeling of "childlike loveliness" to his appearance, which he kept through his life.

Among his parts were Niklas in Tanddoktorn (The Dentist) by Åhlström

Olof Åhlström

Olof Åhlström was a Swedish civil servant, composer and music publisher.Åhlström was born in a peasant family in Vårdinge parish in Södermanland. He received early musical lessons from the parish organist but left his home at the age of sixteen to enroll in the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm...

, Husca in Karavanen (The Caravane) by Gretry, Räfklo in Målaren och modellerna (Painter and Models) by Bouilly, Pierrot

Pierrot

Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...

 in Den talande tavlan (Speaking painting) by Gretry and Crispin in Den föregifna skatten (The Supposed Treasure).
In 1803, he was appointed ballet master of the Royal Swedish Ballet and in 1809 to first dancing master, a position he kept until 1820, with a brief interruption in 1816–1818. He also composed pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

ballets, character dances and other entertainings.

Louis Delands career was destroyed when he, at the age of forty, suffered some kind of condition which made him lose his memory. His place were in many ways filled by Per Erik Sevelin.

Deland was married twice; first to the actor Carolina Kuhlman

Carolina Kuhlman

Ottilia Carolina Kuhlman, also Carolina Deland and Carolina Åbergsson, , was a Swedish actor, the leading lady on the Swedish stage during the Napoleon era in the first two decades of the 19th century.- Biography :...

 and after a divorce

Divorce

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

 to the actor Maria Rebecka Rydberg. He was the father of the feminist Josefina Deland

Josefina Deland

Josefina Deland was a Swedish feminist, writer and a teacher in French. She founded Svenska lärarinnors pensionsförening ....

. The Deland family became a well known theatre family; Louis Deland's nephews, Pierre Deland

Pierre Deland

Pierre Joseph Deland, , was a Swedish actor and theatre director. As director of the Deland travelling theatre, he was one of the most famous artists in both Sweden and Finland during the mid 19th century. His troupe inaugurated several of the first theatres founded in the Swedish and Finnish towns...

 and Fredrik Deland were known actors - the former director of the Deland troupe and Djurgårdsteatern - and Pierre's daughter, the actress Betty Deland

Betty Deland

Betty Deland, as married Almlöf, , was a Swedish child actor, actor and principal at Dramatens elevskola...

, was to be vice principal of Dramatens elevskola

Dramatens elevskola

Dramatens elevskola, i.e. Kungliga Dramatiska Teaterns Elevskola, or in Eng: The Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school, was the acting school of Sweden's national stage, The Royal Dramatic Theatre, and for many years seen as the foremost theatre school and drama education for Swedish stage actors...

.

Sources

• Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon
• Nordisk familjebok
• Georg Nordensvan, Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare från Gustav III till våra dagar; Första bandet, 1772-1842 (Swedish Theatre and Swedish Actors from Gustav III to Our Days: Volume I, 1772–1842)
• Lars Löfgren, Svensk teater (Swedish Theatre)
• Klas Ralf, Prisma, Operan 200 år. Jubelboken (The Opera 200 Year Jubilee Book)