| Jenny Hasselquist | |
| Birth Name: | Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselquist |
| Birth Date: | 31 July 1894 |
| Birth Place: | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Death Place: | Täby, Sweden |
| Other Names: | Jenny Hasselqvist |
| Occupation: | Ballerina, actress, ballet teacher |
| Spouse: |
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| Yearsactive: | 1916–1931 |
Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselquist, also spelled Hasselqvist (31 July 1894 – 8 June 1978), was a Swedish prima ballerina, film actress, and ballet teacher.[1]
Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselquist was born in Stockholm on 31 July 1894 to Johannes Johansson Hasselquist and Sofia Katarina Hasselquist. She had two older brothers, Wilhelm (1887–1959), and Gerhard (1889–1950).[2]
She attended the Swedish Opera's ballet school from 1906 and performed with the Royal Ballet from 1910.[3] In 1913, Michel Fokine noticed her talents and ensured she obtained solo roles in La Sylphide and Cleopatra. She became a prima ballerina at the Royal Ballet in 1915.[4]
In 1920, Hasselquist starred in Rolf de Maré's Ballets suédois in Paris. A talented dancer, she had a flair for the modern idiom.[5] However she left de Maré after just one season, apparently dissatisfied with her potential there.[6] She went on to play leading roles in many Swedish and some German silent films including Johan (1921), Vem dömer (1922), The Hell Ship (1923),[7] and Aftermath (1927). She also appeared as a guest dancer in many of Europe's leading theatres including the Coliseum in London, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.
She had her own school in Stockholm, and from the mid-1930s, she taught at the Stockholm Opera's ballet school. She died on 8 June 1978 in Täby, Sweden.[8]
