Marie-Claude Pietragalla

Do we need to present Marie-Claude Pietragalla? Etoile at the Opéra de Paris for nearly ten years, the first dancer to perform solo on the legendary stage of the Olympia concert hall, she was nominated as the director of the Ballet national de Marseille following Roland Petit’s departure in 1998. Five years later, she left to trace her own path and in 2004 founded the company Théâtre du corps – Pietragalla-Derouault with her companion and collaborator Julien Derouault, whom she met at the Ballet de Marseille. Since that time the company has conquered the world’s greatest stages with blockbuster productions. Sade ou le théâtre des fous, commissioned by Pierre Cardin to celebrate the divine Marquis in his castle, of which the fashion designer is the owner, is part of these large-scale productions that the two choreographers so love. Marie-Claude Pietragalla was a member of the jury on the television show Danse avec les stars (the French version of Strictly Come Dancing) from 2012 to 2017.