Sylvie Guillem

Sylvie Guillem CBE
Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant in 2010
Born	Sylvie Guillem (1965-02-25) 25 February 1965 (age 52) Paris, France
Occupation	Ballet dancer
Years active	1984-2015

Sylvie Guillem CBE (French: [silvi gilɛm]; born 25 February 1965) is a French ballet dancer.

Guillem was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. She has performed contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. Her most notable performances have included those in Giselle and in Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote. In November 2014, she announced her retirement from the stage in 2015.

Guillem was born on 25 February 1965 in Paris. As a child, she trained in gymnastics under the instruction of her mother, a gymnastics teacher.

In 1977 at age 11, she began training at the Paris Opera Ballet School where Claude Bessy, then director of the school, immediately noticed her exceptional capacities and potential, and in 1981 at age 16, she joined the company's corps de ballet. Initially she hated dancing, preferring gymnastics, but after taking part in her show she found she loved performing.

In 1983 Guillem won the gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition, which later in the year earned her her first solo role, dancing the Queen of the Dryads in Rudolf Nureyev's staging of Don Quixote. In December 1984, after her performance in Nureyev's Swan Lake, she became the Paris Opera Ballet's youngest-ever étoile, the company's top-ranking female dancer. In 1987 she performed the lead role in William Forsythe's contemporary ballet In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated with one of her favourite partners, Laurent Hilaire.