Jean-Louis Aumer

Who was Jean-Louis Aumer?

Jean-Louis Aumer was a French danseur and choreographer, who was born in Strasbourg on 21 April 1774, and who died in Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville in July 1833. Educated at the school of the Paris Opera Ballet, he joined the company in 1801 after an initial engagement with Jean Dauberval in Bordeaux. The Paris Opera's maître de ballet Pierre Gardel presented an obstacle which led Aumer to choose the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin as the venue for which to create his early ballets. Faced the with implacable competition from Gardel, Aumer left France for engagements in Kassel and Vienna. Brief periods in Paris and London were followed by his return to the Paris Opera Ballet, where, enriched by the experience of working abroad, he engaged in a profound renovation of the French repertory, capped by his chef-d'œuvre, Manon Lescaut. His daughter Sophie-Julie married the danseur Étienne Leblond in 1826.