Charlotte Slottsberg

Charlotte Slottsberg
Charlotte Slottsberg
Born	29 May 1760
Died	29 May 1800 (1800-05-30) (aged 40)
Cause of death	heart attack after a miscarriage
Residence
Other names	Gustava Charlotta Slottsberg
Occupation	Ballet dancer
Spouse(s)	Adolph Granholm
Notes
Among the first native ballet dancers of her country known by name. Royal mistress.

Charlotte (Gustava Charlotta) Slottsberg (29 May 1760 in – 29 May 1800), was a Swedish ballerina, one of the first native dancers in the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Royal Swedish Opera and one of the most successful ones. In a time when the majority of the professional dancers in Sweden where from France and Italy, such as the French Ninon Dubois Le Clerc and the Italian Giovanna Bassi, she represented native talent in this profession.

Born in a poor home as the child of the wig-maker Andreas Slottsberg and the dancer Lovisa Charlotta Schumbardt, Charlotte Slottsberg danced as a child on smaller stages and at travelling theatre-companies around the city of Stockholm together with her mother and her aunts, who were also dancers. It appears she was later educated as a student of the dancers in the French Du Londel Troupe of the court of queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. In October 1771, her mother, "Madame Slottsberg", and her two aunts are mentioned as employees in the ballet in Bollhuset.

At the age of thirteen in 1773, she was formally hired at the Royal Swedish Opera in Bollhuset as a second-dancer. This first class of native talents on the grand stage consisted of former servants and children of musicians; it was soon to present great ballerinas such as Anna Sofia Lind and Ulrika Åberg, but in the first troupe of 1773, Charlotte Slottsberg and Magdalena Lundblad were two of the very few Swedish dancers with formal training and experience. The situation was the same among the male dancers, were the most notable Swedish dancer was Louis Deland, whose father was from Luxembourg.

In 1773, she took part in the famous play Thetis and Phelée by Uttini, known as the first Swedish-speaking Opera-performance, at the inauguration of the Roysal Swedish Opera opposite Elisabeth Olin and Carl Stenborg in the main parts; another participant in the play, who were to become famous, was Christoffer Christian Karsten, the grandfather of Marie Taglioni. She played the part of Virtue, which she did very well, according to the judgements, and was good friends with Elisabeth Olin's daughter Betty Olin, who played the part of Love. Carl Christoffer Gjörwell wrote about her: "Our new Mlle Slottsberg will become one of the greatest dancers in Europe, and never set foot in the theatre without the most constant applaus from the Royal box.", and in 1778, Gjörwell describes her : "As beautiful as a spring day".