Violette Verdy
| Violette Verdy | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Nelly Armande-Guillerm 1 December 1933 Pont-l'Abbé, France |
| Died | 8 February 2016 (aged 82) Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | Indiana University |
| Occupation | ballerina, choreographer, teacher and writer |
| Spouse(s) |
Colin Clark (divorced) |
| Parent(s) | Renan Guillerm Jeanne Chateaureynaud |
Violette Verdy (born Nelly Armande Guillerm; 1 December 1933 – 8 February 2016) was a French ballerina, choreographer, teacher, and writer who worked as a dance company director with the Paris Opera Ballet in France and the Boston Ballet in the United States. From 1958 to 1977 she was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet where she performed in the world premieres of several works created specifically for her by choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She was Distinguished Professor of Music (Ballet) at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, in Bloomington, and the recipient of two medals from the French government.
Born in Pont-l'Abbé, a seacoast town in the Finistère department of Brittany, in northwestern France, she was christened Nelly Armande Guillerm by her parents. Her father, Renan Guillerm, died when she was a few months old; her mother, Jeanne Chateaureynaud, a schoolteacher, enrolled her daughter in dance lessons because she seemed to have so much energy. Considered a prodigy, she began her ballet training at the age of eight, in 1942, during the German occupation of northern France, and moved with her mother (who sought the best possible teachers for her daughter) to Paris at the height of the German occupation. Following studies in Paris with Carlotta Zambelli and later with Madame Rousanne Sarkissian and Victor Gsovsky, she made her professional debut in 1945, in the corps de ballet of Roland Petit's Le Poète at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt in Paris. Soon afterward, she became a member of Petit's Ballets des Champs-Élysées, where she appeared in numerous small roles over the next few years.
In 1949, Guillerm was chosen by German cinema director Ludwig Berger to star in his film Ballerina, released in Europe in 1950 and known in America as Dream Ballerina. Berger insisted she adopt a stage name, and Roland Petit suggested Violette Verdy, reminiscent of both a flower and the composer Giuseppe Verdi. Critical praise for her sincere acting and pure classical ballet technique won her contacts and contracts with several European ballet companies. She went on to dance with the reorganized Ballets des Champs-Élysées, the Ballet de Marigny, and Les Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit. With the last-named troupe, she created the role of the heroine of Petit's Le Loup (The Wolf, 1953), set to the music of Henri Dutilleux, which proved to be a significant turning point in her development as an interpretive artist. Widely recognized for her musicality, precision, and wit, she would thereafter tour the United States with Les Ballets de Paris (1953) and London Festival Ballet (1954-1955), appearing in leading roles with the ballet company of Teatro alla Scala (1955-1956) in Milan and with Ballet Rambert (1957) in London. With La Scala Ballet she danced the title roles in full-length productions of Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet, both choreographed for her by Alfred Rodrigues; with Ballet Rambert she danced the light-hearted Swanhilda in Coppélia and the more dramatic title role in Giselle, which became one of her signature roles.
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