Hilverding, Hilferding, Franz Anton Christoph van Waven, van Wewen, baptised 17 November 1710 Vienna, †29 May 1768 Vienna, Austrian dancer, choreographer, teacher and ballet master. He came from a well-known theatrical family and honed his skills in Paris under N. Blondy in 1734–35. By 1735 he was already a highly regarded dancer; from 1749 to 1758 he served as dance master at the imperial court in Vienna. In 1742, he made his debut as a choreographer. He created over 30 ballets for Viennese theatres (the Burgtheater, the Kärntnertortheater and others), drawing his themes from, amongst others, the tragedies of J. Racine (Britannicus), P.J. Crébillon (Idomenäus), Voltaire (Alzire) and from mythology (Pygmalion, Orpheus and Eurydice, Bacchus and Ariadne, Cupid and Psyche, and others). Between 1758 and 1764, he worked as a ballet master in Russia; he staged over 20 of his own ballets in St Petersburg and Moscow. In 1765 he returned to Vienna, where he continued to create ballets (including Le triomphe de l’amour and Les amants protégés par l’amour) until J.G. Noverre took up the post of ballet master at the Viennese court (1767).
Hilverding was one of the most outstanding ballet masters of the Enlightenment period, a pioneer of what is known as ‘ballet d’action’. Anticipating the work of G. Angiolini (Hilverding’s pupil and the man who carried on his legacy) and Noverre, he created ballets in which he sought to fuse dance and pantomime. The rich content and emotional depth of his folk, comic, dramatic, mythological and exotic ballets influenced the development of ballet technique and pantomime.
Literature: F. Derra de Moroda A Neglected Choreographer. F.A.Ch. Hilverding, “Dancing Times” 1968 No. 6; M.H. Winter The Pre-Romantic Ballet, London 1974.
