James Harvey D'Egville(ca. 1770 – ca. 1836) was an English dancer and choreographer.[1]
James' father Pierre D'Egville was ballet master atDrury LaneandSadler's WellsTheatres. His other son George D'Egville was also a dancer.[2]
James D'Egville performed at the Paris Opera from 1784 to 1785.[1]
Back in England, in June 1786, he danced inThe Nosegayat theHaymarket TheatrewithMaria Theresa Kemblein the presence of theRoyal Family.On 7 July he appeared in a ballet entitledJamie's Returnwith Kemble and his brother George. It was well received which inspired an artist named Miller to do a painting depicting the three of them.[2]
Between 1799 and 1809 he was choreographer at the King's Theatre, nowHer Majesty's Theatrewhere he had danced as a child in 1783.[1]One of his pupils was Mary Ann Dyke who became tragedienneMary Ann Duff,[3]while another wasArabella Menage.[4]
In 1827, theLondon Magazinepublished an article decrying the fact that D'Egville had won a libel suit againstThe Spirit of the Agenewspaper for writing about his alleged association with the assassin ofPrincess Lambellewhile he was in France in 1792. It annoyed the magazine immensely that simply writing that someone had said something libellous was grounds to win damages against a periodical. The magazine also had snide things to say about D'Egville's ballets. They wrote of him, "the gentleman who deserves the thanks of all the saints on earth, for having cured the young men of the present day of the sinful taste for ballets."[5]
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