Yvette Chauviré

Yvette Chauviré (22 April 1917 – 19 October 2016) was a French prima ballerina and actress. She is often described as France's greatest ballerina, and was the coach of prima ballerinas Sylvie Guillem and Marie-Claude Pietragalla. She was awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 1964.

Yvonne Chauviré was born in Paris on 22 April 1917. Aged 10, in 1927, she entered the Paris Opera Ballet school, and at the age of 12 she was noticed for her performance in the children's ballet L'Eventail de Jeanne ("Jeanne's Fan"). When she was 13, she was invited to join the opera's ballet company.

Chauviré rose through the ranks of dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet, becoming principal dancer in 1937 and étoile, the highest rank, in 1941.

She was the star of a number of experimental works choreographed by the company's director Serge Lifar, including Alexandre le Grand, Istar, Suite en Blanc and Les Mirages. Lifar also encouraged her to study with two Russian choreographers Boris Kniaseff and Victor Gsovsky, who influenced her style towards lyricism and away from her hard-lined academic training.

Although never a pupil of Carlotta Zambelli's, Chauviré later admitted that she spent a great deal of time watching Zambelli teach and learnt to copy her techniques and movements and then to make them her own.