Wilfride Piollet (28 April 1943 – 20 January 2015) was a French ballerina 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 ...

. She was born in

Saint-Rambert-d'Albon Saint-Rambert-d'Albon (, literally ''Saint-Rambert of Albon''; frp, Sent-Rambèrt) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Population Notable residents * Wilfride Piollet, ballerina International relations Saint-Rambe ...

. Her philosophy of dance and her research led to the publication of several books. Piollet joined the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

Ballet company in 1960. She gained the rank "coryphée" in 1963, "sujet" in 1964, soloist in 1966, and was promoted to

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, p ...

(étoile) in 1969. In 1973, ''Nouvelle lune c-à-d'' ( Andy Degroat) was created for her retirement of the

. Invited as a guest by

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev ( ; Tatar/ Bashkir: Рудольф Хәмит улы Нуриев; rus, Рудо́льф Хаме́тович Нуре́ев, p=rʊˈdolʲf xɐˈmʲetəvʲɪtɕ nʊˈrʲejɪf; 17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet ...

, she danced at the

until 1990, the year when

Jean Guizerix Jean Guizerix (born 27 October 1945) is a French ballet dancer and choreographer. Biography Born in Paris in 1945, Guizerix is described as "tall and muscular, with a brooding Basque face". He studied dance privately before he joined the Paris Op ...

left (''Carte Blanche''). At the

and worldwide, she performed the classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertory, and from the 1980s, the Baroque and Renaissance ones. She ended her dance career in 2003 with a piece on

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance, who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Born and raised in ...

's dances studied with Madeleine Lytton, and performed with

Biography

Wilfride Piollet attended 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 ...

School in 1955 and was integrated into the ''

corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French for "body of the ballet") is the group of dancers who are not principal dancers or soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers. ...

'' of the Paris Opera Ballet five years later. By 1969, she was named Danseuse Etoile, and in 1983, she left. She began teaching at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

in 1989. Main teachers were: *

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 ...

: Lioubov Egorova, Marguerite Guillaumin, Vera Volkova, Yves Brieux,

Serge Perrault Serge Perrault (1920 – 13 March 2014) was a French ballet dancer and teacher. Biography Born Serge Leplat in Paris in 1920, he was the half-brother of the dancer Lycette Darsonval. He trained at the Paris Opera School alongside Lucette Almanzo ...

, Serge Peretti *

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

Gene Robinson Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he served as Canon to th ...

Mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

Georges Wague Georges Wague, born Georges Marie Valentin Waag, (14 January 1874 - 17 April 1965) was a French mime, teacher and silent film actor. Birth and education Georges Marie Valentin Waag was born in Paris on 14 January 1874. His parents were strict and ...

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Marguerite Long Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long (13 November 1874 – 13 February 1966) was a French pianist, pedagogue, lecturer, and an ambassador of French music. Life Early life: 1874–1900 Marguerite Long was born to Pierre Long and Anne Marie Antoin ...

Maurice Béjart Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French-born dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, talking vast th ...

gave her her first soloist role in ''Noces'' in 1965. She was promoted to the rank of

Principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, p ...

Harald Lander Harald Alfred Bernhardt Stevnsborg Lander (25 February 1905 – 14 September 1971) was a Danish dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet. Lander was born in Copenhagen. He started as a dancer, studying under ballet ...

's ''Etudes'' in 1969. She performed at the

and throughout the world the leading roles of the classical repertory (''Giselle'', ''Swan Lake'', ''Sleeping Beauty'', ''Coppelia''…) with amongst others,

Cyril Atanassoff Cyril Atanassoff ( bg, Кирил Атанасов; born June 30, 1941) is a French dancer of Bulgarian descent. Career Atanassoff was born in Puteaux to a Bulgarian father and French mother. He joined the '' École de danse de l'Opéra national ...

, and

Fernando Bujones Fernando Bujones (March 9, 1955 – November 10, 2005) was an American dancer. Born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Bujones is regarded as one of the finest male dancers of the 20th century and hailed as one of the greatest American male dan ...

. Interested in contemporary creations of

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

Lucinda Childs Lucinda Childs (born June 26, 1940) is an American postmodern dancer/ choreographer and actress. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest mov ...

Douglas Dunn Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE (born 23 October 1942) is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He is Professor of English and Director of St Andrew's Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew's University. Background Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Re ...

, Andy Degroat, Félix Blaska,

Dominique Bagouet Dominique Bagouet (9 July 1951 - 9 December 1992) was a French choreographer and dancer. He was a great figure in contemporary dance and new French dance. Biography Dominique Bagouet began training in classical dance in Cannes, in the school of ...

and

Daniel Larrieu Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

, she formed a duet on stage and in everyday life with her husband

. She also danced the neoclassical works of

Georges Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

(''Agon''…),

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

(''En sol''…),

Serge Lifar Serge Lifar ( ua, Сергій Михайлович Лифар, ''Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar'') ( 15 December 1986) was a Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. No ...

(''Suite en Blanc''…) and

Roland Petit Roland Petit (13 January 192410 July 2011) was a French ballet company director, choreographer and dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets. Life and work The son of shoe designer Ros ...

(''Notre-Dame de Paris''…). From 1977 onwards, she choreographed her own pieces such as ''The Wooden Prince'', ''Eight Hungarian Dances'', ''Fox'', ''Lettera amorosa'', ''Dam'Oisel'', ''Momerie'', ''Figurative Ballet'', ''Penthésilée'', and ''The Conspiracy''. In 1986, she danced in the Baroque creation ''Atys'' of Francine Lancelot. Between 1986 and 2003 she ran with

the Piollet-Guizerix company presenting choreographies like ''Gondolages'', ''Giselle échappée'', ''L'éléphant et les faons'', ''Tierce galante'' ... From 1989 to 2008, she taught her pioneering training method and Ballet repertory at the

Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

(CNSMDP). She made a books series for children and their teachers called ''Les gestes de Lilou''. In 2008, it was uploaded online and published in 2012 by Clef de Sole. From 1990 onwards, she started to recreate some standards of the ballet repertory (''Coppélia'' ... ) and to carry on her choreographic practice in different shapes and forms: ''Le petit Atelier'', ''Romance'', ''L'Amour médecin'' (2005) for the Comédie-Française, and ''Anonymes'' (2006), for the National School of Circus Art ( l'Ecole Nationale des Arts du Cirque) at Rosny-sous-bois. After 2009, she worked with the Strasbourg Conservatoire ( conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Strasbourg) (commissioned works, conferences, pedagogy). She married

Research

In 1973, while working with

for the ''Un jour ou deux creation'' at the

, she realised after a class that her movements were much easier than after a traditional warm-up. From then on, she stopped working at the barre and started straight in the middle of the studio. This would be the beginning of a whole research process which led her to devise a pioneering technique in movement understanding called ''Flexible Barres''.Interview de Wilfride Piollet par Florence Poudru
sur le site Numéridanse.tv, 2003 Working on body memory and the use of imaginary, she entirely rethought dancer training, developing a practice out of any specific aesthetic. She was particularly influenced by the notions of AFCMD (''analyse fonctionnelle du corps dans le mouvement dansé'' - body and dance movement functional analysis), drawn from her collaboration with Odile Rouquet and her encounter with

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

Pedagogy

Since 1990, she has collaborated with Noëlle Simonet to write in Laban notation the exercises of her method. At the CNSMDP she is supervising the analysis work of Claire Roucolle (2005), Linièle Chane and Kyung-eun Shim (2008) for their final exams in Laban Notation. She takes part in dance related events and gives conferences in France and worldwide, such as ''Sur la trace des Dames Blanches'', commissioned by the Cinémathèque française de la Danse(Dance videos center). Several university dissertations were inspired by her conception of dance: ;Bachelors *Élodie Bergerault, 1999, Université Paris VIII - ''Wilfride Piollet, une pédagogie, un regard d'élève'' *Christophe Duveau, 2004, Faculté de Lettres Nice Sophia-Antipolis - ''La méthode de Wilfride Piollet'' (précédé d'un Mémoire en analyse fonctionnelle du mouvement dansé, en 1997 - ''Le rôle du toucher dans les appuis sur le corps'') ;Masters *Michel de Saint Rapt, 2005, Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand - ''Wilfride Piollet : Quel corps fait-elle danser?'' ;Thesis *Nadège Tardieu, 2006, Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand - ''Savoirs en construction dans la danse classique de Wilfride Piollet: Anthropologie de la transmission'' From 1990, she was frequently invited to present her work in several universities, arts institutes and international training centers, especially in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. In 2002-2003, she became a member of the network led by the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and La Rochelle University Society, and supported by the Research Ministry and the DMDTS of the Culture and Communication Ministry called: ''Le mouvement dansé : recherches pluridisciplinaires et processus de création''(Dancing movement: pluridisciplinary research and creative process). She was also a member of the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Pratiques Corporelles (Labracor), at the Blaise Pascal University (Clermont 2) in Clermont-Ferrand.

Awards

Piollet received the distinction of Commander, National Order of Merit in 1989; and in 2008, she joined its board. From 2010, she was the vice president of artistic higher education at Le Pôle supérieur d'enseignement artistique Paris Boulogne-Billancourt (PSPBB).

Selected works

* 1986 : ''Parallèle'', Wilfride Piollet and

, Alain Bordas. Book about their lives as interprets. * 1999 : ''Rendez-vous sur tes barres flexibles'', Wilfride Piollet, in collaboration with Gérard-Georges Lemaire and

and ''Barres flexibles'' (Scores notated by Noëlle Simonet, Claire Bernard, Monique Duquesne, realisation: Francette Levieux). Oiseau de Feu Editions. The first book deals with movement reading and the second is dedicated to the exercises of her training technique. They were reedited by ditions Sens et Tonk

and 'Une et l'Autre Editionsin 2005-2008. * 2012 : ''Wilfride Piollet Jean Guizerix, Giselle'' published by 'Une et l'Autre Editions Text by

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rem ...

for the ballet ''Giselle'' from the original edition ''Les beautés de l'Opéra'' published in 1844.

References

External links

*
Wilfride Piollet
at Clefdesole {{DEFAULTSORT:Piollet, Wilfride 1943 births 2015 deaths People from Drôme French female dancers French choreographers French ballerinas Contemporary dance choreographers Paris Opera Ballet étoiles