Jean Babilée (real name Jean Gutman(n); 3 February 1923 – 30 January 2014) was a prominent French

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

of the latter half of the 20th century. He is considered to have been one of modern

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

's greatest performers, and the first French dancer to gain international acclaim. Babilée has been called the "''enfant terrible'' of dance." Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1923, the son of a doctor, Babilée studied at the Paris Opéra Ballet School from 1936 to 1940.Patrick Bensard
, Alliance Française USA, accessed March 1, 2011
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', April 23, 1951 His dance career was interrupted during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

because he was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

on his father's side. He left

in 1940 when the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

was approaching the city, but returned to dance with the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded ...

in early 1942. He narrowly escaped being sent to Auschwitz during the

Vel' d'Hiv Roundup The Vel' d'Hiv' Roundup ( ; from french: Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv', an abbreviation of ) was a mass arrest of foreign Jewish families by Vichy France, French police and Gendarmerie, gendarmes at the behest of the Nazi Germany, German authorities, tha ...

in Paris on 16 July 1942. In early 1943 he left the city to avoid compulsory deportation to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

as a forced laborer. He spent the rest of the war with the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

, fighting with the Maquis (World War II), Maquis in Touraine. After the war, Babilée returned to dance, joining the Soirées de la Danse, which later became Les Ballet des Champs Elysées. His birth name was Jean Gutmann, but he adopted his mother's maiden name for professional use.Adrian Room (2010).
Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins
', p. 41. McFarland, , Babilée enjoyed some of his greatest successes as a member of Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées and Les Ballets de Paris.''The Houghton Mifflin dictionary of biography''
page 91
From 1945 to 1950 he was principal dancer of the Ballets des Champs-Élysées, for which he created roles in ballets including ''Jeu de cartes'', Jean Cocteau's ''Le jeune homme et la mort, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort'', ''L'Amour et son amour'', and ''Till Eulenspiegel''. In several of these ballets he performed opposite his wife, featured ballerina Nathalie Philippart. In the 1940s Babilée quickly developed a reputation for his physical prowess. It was said that he could leap better than any dancer since Nijinsky, and in the 1946 premiere of ''Le Jeune Homme et la Mort'' he hung by his neck on a gallows for one minute, supported only by wrapping one arm around a pillar. In the 1950s he danced as a guest of Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris, Le Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris and the American Ballet Theatre, before forming his own company, Les Ballets Jean Babilée. In 1972 and 1973 he served as director of the Ballet du Rhin in Strasbourg. In the early 1980s, Maurice Béjart created the solo ''Life'' for him. In 1984, at the age of 61, he performed ''Le Jeune Homme et la Mort'' with the Ballet de Marseille. He also appeared as a stage actor and in several films. The 2000 documentary film ''Le Mystère Babilée'', directed by Patrick Bensard, reconstructs Babilée's career through interviews with the dancer, excerpts from his choreographic work, and recollections by observers and collaborators including Béjart, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Goude and Yvette Chauviré.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Babilee, Jean French male ballet dancers 1923 births 2014 deaths Paris Opera Ballet étoiles, Babilée