Patrice Bart Adaptation

Hired in the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet in 1959, Patrice Bart was nominated Étoile in 1972, after his first solo as the Prince in Swan Lake (Bourmeister’s version). He danced the greatest roles of the repertoire, from Petrouchka to Sleeping Beauty’s Prince, Don Quixote, the Fils prodigue… He took part in the creations of Serge Lifar (Constellations, 1969), Roland Petit (Mouvances, 1976), MacMillan (Métaboles, 1978), and Nureyev (Rothbart in Swan Lake, 1984). He won the Nijinsky Prize (Université de la Danse) in 1974. An accomplished technical dancer (pas de six in Napoli or La Vivandière), a brilliant partner (from The Corsaire to Palais de cristal), an excellent actor (Coppélia and La Fille mal gardée), Patrice Bart is also keen on performing character roles, such as the grandfather in Nureyev’s Nutcracker. He worked first as repetiteur from 1986, then as ballet master, from 1987, before his farewells to the stage in 1989. Very involved in the artistic organization of the Company, he took with Eugène Polyakov the transitional Dance Direction after Rudolf Nureyev’s departure in November 1989. From 1990 to 2011, he was associated to the Dance Direction. In 1991 he revived with Eugène Polyakov the classic version of Giselle for the 150^th anniversary of its creation, and in 1992 he assisted Nureyev on La Bayadère’s creation. Himself a choreographer, he staged Don Quixote in 1993 for the Berlin Staatsoper, and then in 1995 for the Finnish National Ballet; Giselle in 2000 (1996 for La Scala de Milan), Swan Lake (1997), Verdiana, set in 1999 to some opera music by Verdi (2001 for the Teatro Comunale di Firenze), The Nutcracker (1999), Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (2002). He created for the Paris Opera Coppélia (1996), La Petite Danseuse de Degas (2003), and for the Munich Bayerische Oper La Bayadère in 1997 (version in 4 acts) and for the Finnish National Ballet Tchaikovsky (2005). Patrice Bart is Commander of the Arts and Letters, of the National Order of Merit and Knight of the Legion of Honour.