📍Le Blanc-Mesnil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France
1965 – 1976“Sylvie Guillem was born in Paris in February 1965 and grew up in the working-class suburbs of the city. Her father was a car mechanic, and her mother was a gymnastics teacher, who coached Sylvie from an early age. She was a natural athlete, with remarkable strength and astonishing flexibility, and she soon competed successfully, dreaming of joining the French Olympic gymnastics team. At eleven, in 1977, her gymnastics group spent time at the Paris Opera Ballet School to polish their technique. Sylvie did not love ballet at first, but the school's director, Claude Bessy, saw her extraordinary potential and invited her to stay, and she changed course. Her gymnastic training gave her a unique combination of power, extension and control that would later redefine what a ballerina could do. She studied at the school until 1980, and in 1981, at sixteen, she joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera. In December 1984, at only nineteen, she was promoted to étoile, the company's highest rank, by Rudolf Nureyev, the youngest dancer ever to receive the title. In 1989 she joined the Royal Ballet in London, and later worked with contemporary choreographers such as William Forsythe, Russell Maliphant and Akram Khan. Known as Madame Non for her independence, she became one of the most celebrated dancers in the world. She retired in 2015, after a farewell tour, and has since devoted herself to environmental causes, including the protection of the oceans.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today