Pierre Lacotte

Pierre Lacotte (born 4 April 1932)[1] is a French ballet dancer and choreographer who specialised in the reconstruction of lost choreographies of romantic ballets. His mother was an affirmed musician and he manifested very early his interest for dance. After an initial reluctance, his family surrendered to his stubbornness so that Lacotte could become a student of Gustave Ricaux, who taught at the Paris Opera.[2]

Pierre Lacotte between Nikita Tihonov and Julia Tikhonova

In 1946 he was engaged in the Paris Opera Ballet and in 1953 became a principal dancer. Among his teachers at the Paris Opera Ballet School where Lubov Egorova, Carlotta Zambelli and the choreographer Serge Lifar, who chose Paulette Dynalix, Claude Bessy and Lacotte as the three interpretive dancers of Septuor, a single-act ballet presented in Paris on 25 January 1950.[2][3]

In 1955 he left the Paris Opera to become a soloist dancer and was invited to perform all over the world. Subsequently, Lacotte founded a ballet company named Les Ballets de la Tour Eiffel. He choreographed Hippolyte et Aricie in 1960, and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda in 1961. From 1963 to 1968 he was appointed director of the Ballets des Jeunesses Musicales de France[2] where he created many works including Hamlet (1964), La Voix (1965), and Intermede (1966).

Lacotte was a frequent dance partner of Yvette Chauvire, Lycette Darsonval and Christiane Vaussard.[1]

In 1968, he married the ballerina Ghislaine Thesmar.[1]

In 1971 he was appointed teacher at the Paris Opera and from then on began to specialize in the reconstitution of lost choreographies of romantic ballets:[4]

He also re-created historical versions of Giselle (1978 and 1991), Swan Lake (1998) and The Nutcracker (2000) and some ballets of Michel Fokine: Polovtsian Dances (1986), The Firebird (1991), Le Spectre de la Rose (1997).

Between 1985 and 1988 he was associate director of the new Ballets de Monte Carlo, where he resumed creating original works (L'apprenti sorcier, Te Deum, Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d’une femme). From 1991 to 1999, he was artistic director of the Ballet national de Nancy et de Lorraine. He created the ballet Les Trois Mousquetaires in 2010, and his own versions of Coppélia in 2002 and La Fille du Danube in 2006.

Lacotte lives in Paris.[5]

References
  1. "Pierre Lacotte – Oxford Reference". oxfordreference.com. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  2. Marie-Astrid Gauthier (15 November 2010). "Pierre Lacotte ou la mémoire du ballet" [Pierre Lacotte or the history of the ballet]. resmusica.com (in French). Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  3. "Bibliographic record – Spectacle: Septuor; ballet en 1 acte, Paris (France) : Opéra national de Paris-Palais Garnier – 25-01-1950". National Library of France (in French). Archived from the original on 4 September 2019.
  4. Pierre Lacotte chorégraphe – Paris Opera. operadeparis.fr (in French). Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  5. "Ballet-Dance Magazine – Choreographer Pierre Lacotte – Interview by Catherine Pawlick". www.ballet-dance.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
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