Dancer, choreographer, teacher, ballet teacher and French artistic director, born in Chatou on April 4, 1932.

He studied with Lubov Egorova and at the Ecole de Ballet de l'Opéra in Paris. In 1946 he joined this company, and in 1952 he became the first dancer. In 1955 he left l'Opéra to form Les Ballets de la Tour Eiffel, the first program of which was presented at the Aix-les Bains Festival. He was a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in the 1956-57 season, and director and choreographer of the Ballet National Jeunesses Musicales de France between 1963 and 1968. For this company he created La Proie ( Schoenberg , 1967). He has been a ballet teacher and guest choreographer for numerous companies, for which he has revived many of the classic ballets of the 19th century, including Las Sílfides (1971), for French television, which became part of the repertoire de l'Opéra a year later. In 1973 he recovered the original choreography of Coppélia, released by Ghislaine Thesmar - who would later become his wife - and Michaël Denard . He was choreographer and associate director of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo between 1985 and 1988, for whom he rebuilt in 1993 a whole series of ballets from the time of Sergei Diaghilev . He has been artistic director of the National Ballet of Nancy et de Lorraine since the 1991-92 season. Among his latest creations for this company is Quelques Pas sur Poulenc ( Poulenc , 1997). In 1975 he was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.