Alice Renavand

Alice Renavand (born 1980) is a French ballet dancer. After joining the Paris Opera Ballet in 1997, she became a principal in 2012 and a star (danseuse étoile) in December 2013. Shortly afterwards, she was described as having "la beauté du diable" (the beauty of the devil) as Lizzie in Fall River Legend.

Early life Born in Paris, Renavand has a French father and a Vietnamese mother. Her decision to take up ballet resulted from her father's suggestion that she should make a list of what she would like to do with her spare time. As her first choice was dancing, she took lessons at the Conservatoire de Garches. In 1989, only a few months later, she was admitted to the Paris Opera Ballet School at the age of nine, receiving the support and friendship of Claude Bessy.

Career After graduating from the Ballet School, Renavand joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 1997. Although she progressed well in the corps de ballet, she had a rough time for the first few years putting on too much weight. Thanks to the encouragement of Brigitte Lefèvre, she was able to revitalize her approach, losing in a year. Further support came from Angelin Preljocaj in 2004 who allowed her to replace an injured colleague as Creüse in his Le Songe de Médée, giving her more confidence in her abilities. She was then invited by Pina Bausch to dance Eurydice in her Orphée et Eurydice.

Renavand was injured on stage during her retirement performance of Giselle on 13 July 2022. She returned to the stage of the Opéra Bastille the following season to give a final performance of Béjart's Boléro on 28 May 2023.