Lycette Darsonval (born Alice Andrée Marie Perron, 12 February 1912 – 1 November 1996) was a French ballet dancer. She visited

Noël Corbu Noël Corbu (27 April 1912 – 20 May 1968) is best known as a former restaurateur in the Southern French village of Rennes-le-Château who, between 1955 and 1962 circulated the story that the 19th-century French priest Bérenger Saunière disco ...

Rennes-le-Château Rennes-le-Château (; oc, Rènnas del Castèl) is a commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza, in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in Southern France. In 2018, it had a population of 91. This hilltop village is ...

with the artist Jean Raffy Le Persan (1920-2008) during the 1950s.

Biography

Lycette Darsonval is the half-sister of dancer Serge Perrault. Dancer in the street in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue C ...

, she was spotted and entered the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be k ...

at the age of 23, where, a pupil of Nicola Guerra, she became one of the most prominent performers of the "Lifar generation", promoted to the rank as a prima ballerina in 1940. The title of star not being official until 1941, Solange Schwarz and Lycette Darsonval were the first dancers to bear this title. Two bronzes by Jacques Gestalder representing Lycette Darsonval are exhibited at the Bettencourt-Schueller foundation in Neuilly-sur-Seine. A portrait of Lycette Darsonval was painted by Serge Ivanoff.

Bibliography

* Martine Cadieu, ''Lycette Darsonval'', Paris, Presses littéraires de France, collection "Danseurs et danseuses", 1951, 19 p. (notice BnF no FRBNF31896532) * Lycette Darsonval, ''Ma vie sur les pointes'', Ed. France-Empire, 1988 * Louis Léon-Martin, ''Les demoiselles d'Opéra'', Éditions des portiques, 1930 * Serge Lifar, ''Les mémoires d'Icare'', Sauret, 1993 * Florence Poudru, ''Serge Lifar: la danse pour patrie'', Hermann, 2007 * Gilbert Serres, ''Coulisses de la danse'', France-Europe Ed., 2005

References

External links

1912 births 1996 deaths French ballerinas Darsonval 20th-century French women {{ballet-bio-stub