Violet Verdy

Violet Verdy (1967)

Violette Verdy (actually Nelly Armande Guillerm ; born December 1, 1933 in Pont-l'Abbé , Bretagne ; † February 8, 2016 in Bloomington , Indiana ) was a French ballerina, choreographer , university teacher and writer as well as the director of the Ballet de l ' Opéra de Paris and the Boston Ballet. From 1958 to 1977 she was a solo dancer with the New York City Ballet . She was also a professor of ballet at Bloomington's Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University . Verdy received two medals from the French government: the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1973) and the Order of the Legion of Honor (2008), the most prestigious French award.

Life

Early years in Europe

Born in Pont-l'Abbé, a coastal town in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France, she was christened Nelly Armande Guillerm. Her father, Renan Guillerm, died when she was a few months old; her mother, Jeanne Chateaureynaud, a teacher, enrolled her daughter for dance lessons because she seemed to have so much energy. The girl was soon considered a "child prodigy" when she began her ballet training at the age of eight. During this time, she and her mother moved to the German-occupied Paris. She danced with Carlotta Zambelli and later with Madame Rousanne Sarkissian and Victor Gsovsky. Guillerm made his debut in 1945 in the Corps de ballet of Roland Petits Le Poète at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt in the French capital. Soon afterwards she became a member of the Petits 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 . The work was released in Europe in 1950, in the United States the film was called Dream Ballerina . Berger insisted that the young French woman adopt a stage name, and Roland Petit suggested Violette Verdy because the name recalled both a flower and the composer Giuseppe Verdi. Verdy received critical acclaim for her acting and her classical ballet technique, she made new contacts and signed contracts with several European ballet companies.

Verdy continued to dance with the reorganized Ballets des Champs-Élysées , the Ballet de Marigny and the Les Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit . With the latter group she created the role of the heroine of Petits Le Loup ( The Wolf , 1953), which was dedicated to the music of Henri Dutilleux and which turned out to be a major turning point in her development as an interpreter. Widely recognized for her musicality, precision and wit, she toured the United States with Les Ballets de Paris (1953) and the London Festival Ballet (1954–1955). The Frenchwoman took on leading roles in the La Scala ballet company in Milan (1955–1956) and in the Rambert ballet (1957) in London . In Milan she danced the title roles in full-length productions by Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet , both choreographed by Alfred Rodrigues; with the Ballet Rambert she danced the carefree Swanhilda in Coppélia and the more dramatic title role in Giselle , which became one of her most important roles.

United States

Nora Kaye, a ballerina at the American Ballet Theater , became aware of Verdy in 1957 in London. She invited the French woman to join her ballet. Verdy accepted the invitation and moved to New York City , where she soon found great audiences in both repertoire and gala performances.

Verdy was favored by choreographer Jerome Robbins , who cast her for “Dances at a Gathering” (1969) and “In the Night” (1970), both of which were accompanied by Chopin's piano music. Her solo “the woman in green” in “Dances at a Gathering” is considered a showpiece of her extraordinary musicality and the fast Chopin étude (op. 25, no.4) remains a challenge for ballerinas to this day. The choreography of "In the Night", which is based on three Chopin nocturnes, allowed her to show the finest nuances of meaning in the movement.

As a guest artist, she has appeared frequently in performances at the New York Metropolitan Opera and on tours, including productions of the Royal Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet and the Boston Ballet. She danced the role of ballerina in classic works such as Giselle , Swan Lake , La Sylphide , Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia . From 1949 on, Verdy also danced frequently on French, British, Canadian and American television.

Personal life and late years

In the 1960s, Verdy was briefly married to the writer and filmmaker Colin Clark . In 1977 she left the New York City Ballet to become the first female artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet. After three years, a change in the French government led her to leave Paris and return to the United States in 1980 . She became associate director and later artistic director of the Boston Ballet, a position she held until 1984. Then Verdy headed the dance faculty at the "Jacobs School of Music" at Indiana University.

Violette Verdy has taught as a visiting professor at the Royal Ballet in London, at the Paris Opera in Australia, at the Royal Danish Ballet, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, at the Stuttgart Ballet , at the Hamburg Ballet, at the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich and at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow , where she became the first foreign teacher invited since the 1917 Red Revolution. In 2008, the School of American Ballet announced that Verdy would be its first, and initially only, permanent visiting teacher.

She died on February 8, 2016 in Bloomington, Indiana, after a brief illness.

Web links

• Violette Verdy in the Internet Movie Database (English)