Henriette Hansen (actress)
Norwegian actor, dancer and singer (1814–1892)

Henriette Hansen (7 May 1814 – 20 November 1892), was a Norwegian stage actress, opera singer and ballet dancer. She belonged to the pioneer generation of the first public theatre in Norway, the theatre of Christiania Offentlige Theater in Oslo in 1827. This being the first public stage in Norway, she may be regarded as the first native professional ballet dancer in Norway: the first ballet dancer in Norway was likely the foreign born Christina Doreothea Stuart.
Biography
Henriette Hansen was born in Christiania, (now Oslo), Norway. She was the daughter of tradesman Christopher Hansen and Gunhild Jensdatter.
In Norway, professional theatre was long managed by travelling theatre companies from Denmark and Sweden. In 1827, the first public theatre, which was to be the Christiania Theater, was opened in Oslo by the Swedish actor Johan Peter Strömberg (1773–1834). Strömberg had the ambition to create Norwegian actors.
On the inauguration of the Strömberg theatre on 30 January 1827, a ballet was performed by the Norwegian dancers Henriette Hansen and Andrine (Randine) Christensen, who were described as the foster children of Strömberg, followed by the play Hustrun, translated from Die deutsche Hausfrau by German dramatist August von Kotzebue (1761–1819).
The main parts is believed to have been played by Erike Kirstine Kolstad (1792-1830), and her colleague Boiflin.
The public source identifies “Henriette Hansen (actress)” as norwegian actor, dancer and singer (1814–1892). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Henriette, Hansen and actress.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q4703296. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1814, 1892, 1827 and 1773.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henriette Hansen (actress)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.