Sylvie Guillem

Sylvie Guillem (; born 23 February 1965) is a French ballet dancer. Guillem was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. She has performed contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. Her most notable performances have included those in Giselle and in Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote. In November 2014, she announced her retirement from the stage in 2015.

Biography Early life Guillem was born on 23 February 1965 in Paris, and raised in the suburbs in a working-class family. As a child, she trained in gymnastics under the instruction of her mother, a gymnastics teacher. Her father was a car mechanic.

In 1977 at age 11, she began training at the Paris Opera Ballet School where Claude Bessy, then director of the school, immediately noticed her exceptional capacities and potential, and in 1981 at age 16, she joined the company's corps de ballet.

Career In 1983, Guillem was awarded the Special Prize of the Youth Organization of Varna in junior division at the Varna International Ballet Competition, which later in the year earned her her first solo role, dancing the Queen of the Dryads in Rudolf Nureyev's staging of Don Quixote.

In 1988, she was given the title role in a production of Giselle staged by the Royal Ballet to celebrate Nureyev's 50th birthday. Her performance was a success, and in the following year she left Paris for London, to become a freelance performer and one of the Royal Ballet's principal guest artists. She was also criticized as "too uncompromising" by Clemente Crisp of the Financial Times and labeled "the Icy Divine" by Vittoria Ottolenghi. Guillem said about her style of dance: “I think my style of acting is different because I try to take away all this superfluous gesture that doesn’t mean anything to me. When I don’t feel something on stage, I prefer not do it than something that is not comfortable. … That’s why for a long time people would say, ‘She’s too cold. She doesn’t show any feeling.’ They said that because they didn’t see what they used to see."

In 1995, Guillem created the dance television program, Evidentia, which won several international awards. In 1998, she staged her own version of Giselle for the Finnish National Ballet, and in 2001 restaged the ballet for La Scala Ballet in Milan.

In 2003, she directed the central section of a Nureyev tribute program, but was criticised for having the dancers perform in front of a giant projected backdrop of Nureyev, which the audience found distracting. By 2006, she had moved from ballet to contemporary dance, working with such performers as Akram Khan as an Associate Artist of the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.

In March 2015, Guillem embarked on an international farewell tour titled Life in Progress, featuring works by Khan, Russell Maliphant, Mats Ek and Forsythe.

The tour concluded in Japan, and she gave her final performance live on Japanese television on 31 December 2015, performing Maurice Béjart's Boléro as the clock counted down to midnight local time. The performance ended right at the stroke of midnight local time on 1 January 2016. In 2021, Guillem gave her first interview since retiring to speak about her life and artistry, as part of a talk with Daniil Simkin.

Personal life

She is a supporter of environmental group Sea Shepherd. In later life she became a vegan. The residence includes two restored Italian farmhouses, two art studios, and two acres of olive groves and orchards.

Awards Guillem has received numerous decorations during her career. 1983 : Special Prize of the Youth Organization of Varna at the Varna International Ballet Competition 1984 : Prix du Cercle Carpeaux (Paris) 1988 : Andersen Prize (Copenhagen), Grand Prix national de danse (Paris), Commandeur of the Arts et Lettres (Paris) 1989 : Grand Prix Pavlova 1993 : Médaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris 1994 : Prix Benois de la Danse 1994 : Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur 1999 : Officier of the Ordre national du Mérite 2000 : Gente Dame of honor of the Hospitaliers de Pomerol 2001 : Prix Nijinski 2003 : Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2009 : Officier of the Légion d'honneur 2012 : Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, from the Biennale Danza of Venice 2015 : Praemium Imperiale, Tokyo 2015 : Society of London Theatre Special Award 2016 : Critics' Circle National Dance Award: De Valois Award for outstanding achievements