Curz, Daniel (EN)

Curz, also Curtz, Kurz, Kurtz, Daniel (Daniele), *23 December 1753 Venice, †after 1822 probably Zhytomyr, French dancer, ballet master, choreographer and dance teacher of Alsatian origin. His father, Andreas (Andrea) Curz, was mentioned by G. Casanova as the valued violinist, previously associated with orchestras in Venice and in 1753–74 with the court opera and ballet orchestra of N. Jommelli in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg. Daniel’s older sister was the dancer Caterina Curz, one of the mistresses of Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, and later “prima ballerina seria” at the Nouvo Regio Ducal Teatro alla Scala in Milan and other Italian theatres. He initially studied at the Stuttgart dance school and probably practised in the famous performances there by J.-G. Noverre, the great French choreographer and ballet reformer. Then – as he claimed – he trained at the Académie de Danse in Paris. From there, he joined the V. Campioni company at the King’s Theatre in London (1769–70), in which his sister Caterina was also performing. After returning to his family in Ludwigsburg, he danced briefly in the ballet of the local Hofschloßtheater under the direction of ballet master L.-A. Dauvigny (1770–71). He then became a soloist in ballet performances by G. Angiolini, working with him first at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice (1772–73), and then also on the stages of the Burgtheater and Kärntnerthortheater in Vienna (1774–75). After Angiolini left for St. Petersburg, he worked briefly in Vienna with ballet master S. Gallet, and in the autumn of 1776, he took up a job as a soloist in the ballet in Warsaw. In 1777, he also made his debut as a choreographer, staging the ballets Les Nymphes after Angiolini and Adèle de Ponthieu after Noverre on the stage of the then theatre in the Radziwiłł Palace. In the same year, he affiliated in Warsaw with the French Masonic lodge “Perfect Silence,” in which he was later noted as a master of ceremonies. In 1778, in connection with the suspension of performances by the Warsaw Entrepreneurship, which, deprived of the possibility of further use of the Radziwiłł Palace, was waiting for the construction of a new theatre building on Krasiński Square, he decided to seek employment on Italian stages, where his sister was making a career. He performed at her side and together with the aforementioned Gallet at the Teatro Civico in Alessandria (1779), but he also produced a small comic ballet there, Il feudatario ingannato. At the turn of 1779/80, he was again noted at the Teatro San Benedetto, now dancing under the direction and in the ballets of D. Ricciardi, also alongside his famous sister.

In 1780, on the orders of King Stanisław August, he was brought back to Warsaw as a “primo serio” soloist, “ballet master of His Royal Majesty,” and teacher at the dance school organized at the new Theatre on Krasiński Square. He held these positions in 1780–85 (from 1783, also as the theatre entrepreneur in partnership with W. Bogusławski), and then still in 1786–94 in the new ensemble of His Royal Majesty’s National Dancers, which he directed for the first three years together with the French ballet master F.G. Le Doux. He also occasionally appeared as an actor in comedy performances for the king in Łazienki Park. He collaborated with Bogusławski and composer Jan Stefani on the historical production of their national song play Cud mniemany, czyli Krakowiacy i Górale, adding a patriotic dance scene at the end of the performance entitled Werbunek własnego autorstwa (1794). Then, as he claimed, he took part in the Kościuszko Uprising as a captain. After the fall of the Republic, he decided to leave with his family and several Warsaw dancers for Lviv, visiting the king interned in Grodno on the way, where they all tried unsuccessfully to get their arrears of wages but received only valuable gifts and funds to cover their further travel.

In 1795–97, he collaborated as a dancer and ballet master with the competing theatre enterprises of F.H. Bulla and Bogusławski in Lviv, where he revived several of his Warsaw ballets. Later, he gave only private dance lessons in wealthier homes and boarding houses, and in 1804–05, he also commuted to Beńkowa Wisznia as a dance teacher in the Fredro house. From 1809, he taught the children of the marshal of the nobility of the Podolia governorate, General J. Dziekoński in Morachwa, and in 1815–22, he worked as a dance teacher at the Podolia Gymnasium in Vinnytsia. He was married three times. In 1776, he came to Warsaw with his unknown wife Cecilia who died in 1777. Shortly afterwards, he became involved with the Polish dancer Anna Smalska and had a son with her in 1778, but their further fate is unknown. His third wife, around 1787, was the already valued Austrian soloist of the Warsaw ballet, Eva Schinagel, with whom he had five children; all of them were still recorded in 1822 in documents left after the Vinnytsia Podolsk Gymnasium. He probably died that year or shortly afterwards in Zhytomyr, where he had lived with his family during the years of his teaching work in Vinnytsia.

He was the most important creator of Polish ballet theatre in the 18^th century. As a student of the great European reformer choreographers and creators of ballet theatre, Noverre and Angiolini, he primarily promoted their genre of ballet with action. In his productions, he reached for popular literary and mythological motifs, expressing their content using the means of ballet pantomime. In creating them, he collaborated most often with the Warsaw violinist, composer and ballet repetiteur Antoni Hart, but also with Jan Stefani. As a choreographer, he was extremely prolific, creating over 80 heroic and comic ballets and genre divertissements, as well as many dances in opera performances. He was also the first to introduce Polish folk dances (Krakowiacy i Kozacy) to the ballet stage. He gained the recognition of King Stanisław August and was often awarded by him with occasional gifts, and his ballets enjoyed great success; some of them were revived in Warsaw as late as 1803–10. At the behest of the king, he also founded and ran the first dance school at the theatre in Krasiński Square in Warsaw, and towards the end of his life, he was a valued dance teacher in Lviv and Podolia; he taught, among others, the young Aleksander Fredro.

Literature: Opisy formularne Daniela Kurtza, nauczyciela tańców w Gimnazjum Podolskim Winnickim, 1817 and 1822, Archives of the Vilnius Curatorial Office of X. A. Czartoryski (manuscript), University Library, Vilnius; T. Wiel I teatri musicali veneziani del settecento, Venezia 1897; L. Bernacki Teatr, dramat i muzyka za Stanisława Augusta, Lviv 1925; K. Wierzbicka Źródła do historii teatru warszawskiego od roku 1762 do roku 1833, part I, Wrocław 1951; K. Wierzbicka-Michalska Sześć studiów o teatrze stanisławowskim, Wrocław 1967; J. Kott (ed.) Teatr Narodowy, 1765–1794, Warsaw 1967; P. Chynowski Wenecjanin, Polak z wyboru, “Życie Warszawy” 1983, no. 305; A. Żórawska-Witkowska Muzyka na dworze i w teatrze Stanisława Augusta, Warsaw 1995; B. Mamontowicz-Łojek Tancerze króla Stanisława Augusta, 1774–1798, Warsaw 2005; J. Komorowski Daniel Curz, lata szkolne, “Pamiętnik Teatralny”, 2018 no. 4;  P. Chynowski Daniel Curz [https://archiwum.teatrwielki.pl/baza/-/o/danielcurz/1349290/20181, access: 12.02.202].