Jean Babilée
Jean Babilée (real name Jean Gutman(n); 3 February 1923 – 30 January 2014) was a prominent
choreographer of the latter half of the 20th century. He is considered to have been one of modern ballet's greatest performers, and the first French dancer to gain international acclaim. Babilée has been called the "enfant terrible of dance."[1]
Born in
Jewish on his father's side.[3] He left Paris in 1940 when the Wehrmacht was approaching the city, but returned to dance with the Paris Opera Ballet in early 1942. He narrowly escaped being sent to Auschwitz during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in Paris on 16 July 1942. In early 1943 he left the city to avoid compulsory deportation to Germany as a forced laborer. He spent the rest of the war with the French Resistance, fighting with the Maquis in Touraine.[2][4]
After the war, Babilée returned to dance, joining the Soirées de la Danse, which later became
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.[2]
In the 1950s he danced as a guest of
Ballet du Rhin in Strasbourg.[6] In the early 1980s, Maurice Béjart created the solo Life for him.[6] In 1984, at the age of 61, he performed Le Jeune Homme et la Mort with the Ballet de Marseille.[1]
He also appeared as a stage actor and in several films.[6]
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.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Patrick Bensard Archived 2013-01-09 at archive.today, Alliance Française USA, accessed March 1, 2011
- ^ ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
- ^ "Jean Babilée, Rebel of World Ballet, Dies at 90 (Published 2014)". 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
- ISBN 978-0-307-26897-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4
- ^ a b c d e The Houghton Mifflin dictionary of biography, page 91.
External links
- Jean Babilée at IMDb
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