Pierre Lacotte

Pierre Lacotte born 1932. 

I trained at the Opera School. In 1946 I joined the Corps de  Ballet and Serge Lifar chose me as soloist in “Septuor”. Promoted to  PREMIER DANSEUR in 1951, I frequently partnered Yvette Chauvire, Lycette  Darsonval and Christiane Vaussard. 

One of my first choreographic works (“The Night is a Sorceress”  to music by Sydney Bechet) was shown on Belgian television in 1954, and  this led me to leave the Opera in order to continue with choreography.  In 1955 I formed my own company, Les Ballets de la Tour Effel, who  appeared at the Theatre des Champs Elysees with the following works:  “Solstices”, to music by Daniel Wayenberg, “Gosse de Paris” to music by  Charles Asnavour and “Concertino” to music by Vivaldi. 

At the same time I was pursuing my dancing career and I was  invited to perform in New York with Melissa Hayden, in London with  Violette Verdy and in Benelux, Germany and Switzerland. Several  Festivals commissioned ballets from me: “Such Sweet Thunder” (Duke  Ellington) in Berlin, “Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) for the Festival du  Marais and “Le Combat de Tancrede” (Monteverdi) for Aix-en-Provence.  Following my appointment as Director of Ballet of the Jeunesses  Musicales de France in 1963, I created 35 ballets in 7 years, including  “Bifurcations”, “Hamlet”, “Penthesilee” and “La Voix” in collaboration  with Edith Piaf. 

It was in 1968 whilst writing a book on romantic ballet that I  discovered documents about Philippe Taglioni‘s “La Sylphide” (1832)  which enabled me to reconstruct the work. Produced originally for  television, “La Sylphide” was subsequently transferred to the stage when  the Paris Opera invited me and the dancers (Ghislaine Thesmar and  Michael Denard) to repeat the performance at the Palais Garnier on 9  June 1972. 

After that I sort of became a “specialist” in the reconstruction  of works from the romantic repertoire: “Coppelia” and the pas de six  from “La Vivandiere” (Arthur saint-Leon) as well as the pas de deux from  “Papillon” (Marie Taglioni) for the Paris Opera (I danced this pas de  deux with Dominique Khalfouni in 1976), Taglioni‘s “La Fille du Danube”  for the Buenos Aires Colon Theatre, “Giselle” by Jean Corelli and Jules  Perrot (set and costumes based on the original 1841 production) for the  Ballet du Rhin, the Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Ballet National de  Nancy, “Nathalie or the Swiss Milkmaid” for Ekaterina Maximova in Moscow  (1980), “Marco Spada” by Joseph Mazilier at the Rome Opera in 1981 and  at the Paris Opera in 1985, “La Gitana” at the National Ballet of WARSAW  and “L‘Ombre” at the Ballet National de Paris, both in 1993, Le Lac des  Fees” at the Berlin Staatsoper in (1995) and “Le Lac des Cygnes” at  Nancy (1998). 

Having taught at the Conservatoire National Superior and at the  Paris Opera, I was appointed, with Ghislane Thesmar, Director of the new  Ballets Monte-Carlo where I put on “Te Deum” by Georges Bizet and “24  Hours in the Life of a Woman” based on the work by Stefan Zweig to a  score by Herve Niquet. I left in 1988 for the Verona Opera Ballet. From  1991 to 1999 I was Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Nancy and  Lorraine. 

Master of Arts and Literature, I co-authored with Jean-Pierre Pastori a book entitled “Tradition”.