Biography
Trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, Roland Petit joined the company in 1940 but left in 1944 to create and perform his own works at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, in Paris. In 1945 Petit was
instrumental in creating Les Ballets des Champs-Elysees, where he remained as principal dancer, ballet master, and choreographer until 1947. In 1948 he formed the Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit,
which made several tours of Europe and the United States. His choreography was often angular or acrobatic and was considered theatrical in its use of mime dance, occasional singing, and props such as
cigarettes and telephones. Petit staged several music hall revues and choreographed the dances for the films Hans Christian Andersen, The Glass Slipper, Daddy Long Legs,
Anything Goes, and others. The ballet film Black Tights consisted of Petit's works La Croqueuse de diamants, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Merry Mourning, and
Carmen.
In 1959, he presented his first long ballet, Cyrano de Bergerac, at the Theatre de L’Alhambra. In 1965, he created Notre-Dame de Paris for the Paris Opera Ballet Company and was
invited to join the Company as artistic director, a post he soon gave up. Petit also staged several of his ballets for Sadler's Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet), for the Royal Danish Ballet, and
for other troupes.
From 1972-1998, he was artistic director of the Ballet National de Marseille. His first work for this new Company was Allumez les etoiles!, a ballet about Mayakovsky.
He is now a guest choreographer, working for many companies, including the Paris Opera.
His main ballets are: Paul et Virginie (1943), Orphee et Eurydice (1944), Les Forains, Le Rendez-vous (1945), Le Jeune homme et la mort, Le Bal des
blanchisseuses (1946), Les Demoiselles de la nuit (1948), Carmen (1949), La Croqueuse de diamants (1950), Deuil en 24 heures, Le Loup (1953), La
Chambre (1955), Cyrano de Bergerac (1959), Les Chants de Maldoror (1962), Notre-Dame de Paris (1965), L’eloge de la folie (1966), Paradis perdu
(1967), Turangalila (1968), Allumez les etoiles!, Pink Floyd Ballet(1972), La Rose malade (one of the parts of the ballet Le Jardin d’amour, 1973),
L’Arlesienne, Proust, ou les intermittences du coeur (1974), La Symphonie fantastique, Septentrion, Coppelia (1975), Nana (1976),
Casse-noisette, La Dame de Pique (1978), La Chauve-souris, Parisiana 25 (1979), Le fantome de l'Opera (1980), Les amours de Franz (1981),
Soiree Debussy, Les hauts de Hurlevent (1982), Les Quatre saisons (1984), L'Ange Bleu, Le Mariage du ciel et l’enfer, Le Chat botte (1985),
Ma Pavlova, Tout Satie (1988), Le Diable Amoureux (1989), La belle au bois dormant (1990), Mozart et la danse, Charlot danse avec nous (1991),
La Valse triste ou le Retour des Cygnes, Mere Mediterranee (1992), Dix oder Eros und Tod (1993), Passacaille, Rythme de valses, Camera obscura
(1994), Le Guepard (1995), Roland Petit fait son Cinema, Zizi au Zenith, Et la lune descend sur le Temple qui fut (1995), Cheri, Le Bolero
(1996), Le Lac des cygnes et ses Malefices (1998), Clavigo (1999), Ballet en musique de Duke Ellington, La Dame de Pique (2001), Defit d’Ivresse
(2002).
For the Bolshoi Theatre he produced the ballets La Rose Malade (1973), Cyrano de Bergerac (1988), La Dame de Pique (2001), Passacaille (2001), Notre Dame de
Paris (2003).
He has staged the following revues: Zizi au music-hall (1957), Ballets des electrons (1960), Zizi dans les revues de Roland Petit (1970), Zizi, je t'aime (1972)
and other revues for L'Alhambra and the Casino de Paris theatres. He has published his memoires, J'ai danse sur les flots (1993) and Temps lies avec Noureev (1998).
He has been made a Chevalier dans l'ordre des arts et des letters (1962), Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (1974), an Officer of the National Order for services in the fields of literature and the
arts (1978); and he has been awarded the Grand Prix National des arts et les lettres (1975), the Prix Bournonville (1981), the State prize of Russia (2003).
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