 At the age of eight, he entered the Royal Ballet School at the Court Theatre in Christiansborg Palace under the tutelage of his father and Vincenzo Galeotti, ballet master and principal choreographer of the Royal Danish Ballet from 1775 to 1816.On 2 October 1813, Bournonville made his first stage appearance in a small part as the son of a Viking king in Galeotti's "Lagertha", the first ballet on a Nordic theme.Less than a year later, he received his first personal applause for dancing a Hungarian solo at the Court Theatre.