Dinna Bjørn

Dinna Bjørn (born 14 February 1947) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. She has specialized dancing and directing the ballets of August Bournonville. Bjørn has also created five Hans Christian Andersen ballets for the Pantomime Theatre in Copenhagen's Tivoli.

Early life Born in Copenhagen, she is the daughter of the concert pianist Elvi Henriksen and of ballet master Niels Bjørn Larsen. When she was nine she danced at the Pantomime Theatre in the Tivoli Gardens. She studied privately under Hans Brenaa and later under prima ballerina Edite Feifere Frandsen from Latvia who trained her using the Vaganova method.

Career

Dancing On entering the Royal Danish Ballet School, she learned the techniques of Bournonville ballet with such ease that she immediately joined the company, making her début in 1966 when she was 16 in Jerome Robbins' (Afternoon of a Faun). She also performed in David Lichine's Graduation Ball. Her real breakthrough came in 1971 when she danced Clara in The Nutcracker, specially choreographed for her by Flemming Flindt.

Bjørn has performed particularly well in a number of Bournonville's ballets, including the title role in La Sylphide and Eleonore and Johanna in Kermes in Bruges. Among other principal roles were the First Pas de deux in Rudi van Dantzig's Vier Letzte Lieder and the title role in Michel Fokine's Petrushka. She also performed Cinderella in Norfolk, Virginia, and Giselle at the 1988 Odense Festival.

Awards Dinna Bjørn has received the Danish Order of the Dannebrog, the Finnish Order of The White Rose, and the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.