Françoise Adret | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1920-08-07)August 7, 1920 |
| Died | April 1, 2018(2018-04-01) (aged 97) |
| Occupation(s) | Ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, company director |
| Years active | 1940s–1999 |
| Notable work | La Conjuration,Aquathèmes,Requiem |
| Awards | Commandeur, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1983), Grand Prix National de la Danse (1987), Chevalier, Légion d'Honneur (1994) |
| Career | |
| Former groups | Paris Opera Ballet, Ballets de Paris, Ballet of the Netherlands Opera, Ballet Théâtre Contemporain, Ballet du Nord, Ballet de Lorraine |
Françoise Adret (7 August 1920 – 1 April 2018)[1] was a French ballet dancer, teacher,choreographer, and company director.
Her professional career, international in scope, albeit centered in France, spanned more than sixty years.[2] She was recognized as one of the most innovative creators of contemporary dance in western Europe.[3][4]
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Born inVersailles, Adret began her dance training at an early age. In the 1930s she studied with the leading Franco-Russian teachers in Paris, includingVictor Gsovsky, Madame Rousanne (Rousanne Sarkissian) andSerge Lifar. In the late 1940s, following World War II, she had a modest career with theParis Opera Ballet, making a notable appearance at theThéâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1948 in a principal role in Lifar's production ofLe Pas d'Acier ("The Steel Step"), a modern ballet about Soviet factory workers set to a score inle style mécanique byProkofiev.[citation needed]
From Lifar, director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1930 to 1944, and from 1947 to 1958, she learned much about company administration and direction. Under his guidance, she made her first choreography, entitledLa Conjuration ("The Conspiracy"), in 1948. Based on a poem byRené Char, it was set to music by Jacques Porte and had décor byGeorges Braque.[citation needed]
Later that year, Adret left the Paris Opera Ballet and became ballet mistress ofRoland Petit's Ballets de Paris, touring with the company in western Europe. In 1951 she succeededDarja Collin as director of the Ballet of theNetherlands Opera in Amsterdam while continuing to work with Petit's company,[5] raising the technical level of the dancers in both companies. Working in Amsterdam until 1958, she also expanded the repertory of the Dutch company with classical ballets and a number of original choreographic works.[citation needed]
In 1960, she became ballet mistress of the Ballet de l'Opéra de Nice and remained with that company until 1963, staging opera divertissements and modern ballets. She then spent a few years as an international guest choreographer, staging works for Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in Paris, PACT/TRUK Ballet in Johannesburg, the Warsaw Opera Ballet, theZagreb Opera Ballet, and theHarkness Ballet in New York City. While residing inPanama, she created the Ballet Nacional de Panamá.[citation needed]
Returning to France, Adret joinedJean-Albert Cartier in 1968 in the creation of the Ballet Théâtre Contemporain, the first national choreographic center, established inAmiens. She was choreographic director of the repertory, and for it she created some of her most notable works, includingAquathémes andRequiem.[6] In 1972, the company moved from Amiens toAngers and embarked on its first tour of North America.[7]
Adret remained with Ballet Théâtre Contemporain for ten years, until 1978, when it was subsumed by the activities of the newly establishedCentre National de Danse Contemporaine. She was then appointed inspector general for dance projects in the Ministry of Culture, a post she retained until 1985, when she was invited by Louis Erlo, director of theLyon Opera, to create a new ballet company committed to contemporary choreographers. During her seven years there, until 1992, Adret put the company in the forefront of contemporary dance in France.[8]
Adret next became artistic director and chief choreographer of the Ballet du Nord inRoubaix, where in 1994 she mounted two new versions ofSymphonie de Psaumes andLe Tricorne. From 1995 to 1998 the Association Française d'Action Artistique sent her on three overseas missions, during which she taught dance classes and choreographed works in Seoul, South Korea, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Asunción, Paraguay. She then returned to France, working again with Roland Petit, serving as ballet mistress of hisBallet National de Marseille in 1997 and 1998.[citation needed]
On 1 July 1999 she accepted a temporary appointment as artistic director of the Ballet de Lorraine, replacingPierre Lacotte, who had returned to the Paris Opera Ballet. Nearing her eightieth birthday, she served in that post for an interim period of one year.[9]
For her work as inspector general of dance projects in the Ministry of Culture, Adret was made acommandeur in theOrdre des Arts et des Lettres in 1983. In recognition of her role in developing contemporary dance in France, she received the Grand Prix National de la Danse in 1987, and in 1994 she was named as achevalier in theOrdre National de la Légion d'Honneur.
A small, energetic woman with a sparkling wit, Adret was generally acknowledged as afigure incontournable ("indispensable person") in twentieth-century French dance. She was praised for her work as a pedagogue and greatly admired for her unique artistic vision, which allowed her to reconcile her dance works on the cutting edge of modernity with the classic ballet repertory of yesteryear.[10]
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