Biography of Roland Petit

Roland Petit (born 13 January 1924 in Villemomble; died 10 July 2011 in Geneva) was a French dancer, choreographer and ballet director. He connected classical ballet with theatre, film, music hall, literature and a direct physical language that gave many of his works a distinctive stage tension.

Paris training

Petit entered the Paris Opera Ballet school early and joined the company in 1940. His mother Rose Repetto worked as a costume maker and later founded the dance-shoe brand Repetto. Petit left the Opera in the mid-1940s to work more freely. In this period the Ballets des Champs-Élysées were created, where he worked as dancer, ballet director and choreographer.

Postwar years and his own language

On 25 June 1946 Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, with a libretto by Jean Cocteau, was premiered in Paris. The piece became a key work of the postwar years: concise, theatrical, existential and marked by movement that placed classical technique in a harder present. In 1948 Petit founded the Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit and worked with dancers including Jean Babilée, Colette Marchand, Leslie Caron and Zizi Jeanmaire.

Carmen, cinema and music hall

With Carmen in 1949, Petit created another work that joined ballet, sensuality and clear dramatic situations. For Zizi Jeanmaire, whom he married in 1954, he developed stage roles and revues. He also worked for film, including dance scenes for Hans Christian Andersen, The Glass Slipper and Daddy Long Legs. His choreography could move between ballet stage, cinema and music hall without a rigid boundary.

Marseille and later works

In 1973 Petit took over the Ballet de Marseille and remained there until 1998. In Marseille he created new works, revivals and pieces inspired by literature, including versions based on Coppélia, Notre-Dame de Paris and Le Fantôme de l'Opéra. He also continued to work for other companies, including the Paris Opera, La Scala in Milan and international ensembles.

Geneva

Roland Petit died in Geneva on 10 July 2011. He was 87 years old. His work remains connected with a stage on which ballet could become narrative, cinematic, physical and at times almost chanson-like.