Antoine Paul known as Paul, was a French ballet dancer. After dancing in Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

 and Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, Paul débuted at the Opéra de Paris in 1820 and quickly became one of the public's favourite premiers danseurs. Nicknamed "l'Aérien" due to his technical qualities, Auguste Bournonville stated "Paul's superiority is his lightness, elasticity, speed, softness and precision. He knows how to combine daring and natural grace." He regularly performed in London, with partners including his sister Madame Montessu

Madame Montessu

Pauline-Euphrosine Paul was a French ballet dancer. She married the dancer Laurent-François-Alexandre Montessu in 1821 and was thus also known as Madame Montessu. She was the sister and student of the noted dancer Paul before being admitted to the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, where she débuted on...

 and Madame Anatole

Madame Anatole

Constance-Hippolyte Gosselin was a French ballet dancer. The daughter of a dancing master and younger sister of the dancer Geneviève Gosselin, Constance débuted at the Opéra de Paris in 1810, after studying dance under Louis Duport and Jean-François Coulon...

, as well as at Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, where he was praised by Stendhal

Stendhal

Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...

. He retired from the stage in 1831.