Jean Dauberval, a.k.a Jean D’Auberval, (born Jean Bercher in Montpellier

Montpellier

-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

, France

Early Modern France

Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

 on 19 August 1742; and died in Tours

Tours

Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...

, on 14 February 1806), was a French dancer 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...

. He is most noted for creating the ballet, La Fille mal gardée

La Fille Mal Gardée

La Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...

, one the most enduring and popular works of the ballet repertoire.

Dauberval was trained at the school of the Paris Opéra

Paris Opera Ballet

The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...

 where he studied under the great Jean-Georges Noverre

Jean-Georges Noverre

Jean-Georges Noverre was a French dancer and balletmaster, and is generally considered the creator of ballet d'action, a precursor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century...

. He was appointed premier danseur of the ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

 in 1763, and, in 1771, he was named 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...

. From 1781 until 1783, he was engaged as maître de ballet to the Académie.

In 1783, Dauberval moved to Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, where he accepted the post of maître de ballet to the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, is a Theatre in Bordeaux, France, first inaugurated on 17 April 1780. It was in this theatre that the ballet La Fille Mal Gardée premiered in 1789, and where a young Marius Petipa staged some of his first ballets....

, a position he held until 1791. In 1789, Dauberval created his most enduring ballet, La Fille mal gardée, in which his wife, the dancer Marie-Madeleine Crespé, who is known to history as Madame Théodore, created the role of Lison. (The role is known as "Lise" today.)

Noted works

• Le Déserteur (1785)
• Le Page inconstant (based on La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro
  The Marriage of Figaro (play)
  The Marriage of Figaro ) is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second installment in the Figaro Trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville and followed by The Guilty Mother. The Barber begins the story with a simple love triangle in which the Count has...
  
  by Beaumarchais, 1787)
• Psyché et l'Amour (1788)
• La Fille Mal Gardée
  La Fille Mal Gardée
  La Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...
  
  (1789)
• Télémaque dans l'île de Calypso (1797)