Mireille Bourgeois-Delcey

Mireille Bourgeois studied dance in Marseille, her home town. Noticed by Roland Petit, choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet National de Marseille, she signed her first contract at the age of fifteen and a half. She remained with the company for six years, appearing as a soloist in the lead roles in Coppélia, The Nutcracker, Pink Floyd Ballet, Le Loup, Proust ou les intermittences du cœur, Notre Dame de Paris, À la Mémoire d’un ange, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort and l’Arlésienne, among others. She continued her career in the United Kingdom, where she was in turn a star with the London Festival Ballet, the Northern Ballet Theater in Manchester and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She danced in the Romantic, Classical and Neo-classical repertoires, notably works by Kenneth MacMillan, Frederick Ashton and George Balanchine. Driven by a desire to teach, she trained at the Royal Academy of Dancing, where she graduated with distinction as a dance teacher. On her return to France, her particular reputation meant that she did not need to take the state diploma. She taught for a year in Paris before joining the teaching staff of the École nationale supérieure de Danse de Marseille a year after it opened in 1993. She also works with the Scuola di Danza di Torino (Italy) and the Ballet d’Europe (artistic director: Jean-Charles Gil). She also prepares candidates for the Prix de Lausanne. She is also a tutor for teachers in training as part of their preparation for the Certificat d’aptitude aux fonctions de professeur de danse.